iPhone: First Thoughts

In my last “I want a Pre when oh when will they release the Pre” post, I mentioned the possibility of getting an iPhone, “just until a better phone can come along.” Not too long after writing that post, my phone died. When when I say it died, I mean it died—it couldn’t do anything.

So I took my own advice, and got an iPhone. The good news is that the best combination voice and data plan that I could find is the one that Rogers offers for the iPhone, so it worked out nicely. And, when the Pre finally gets launched, I’ll be able to slide that into my iPhone voice/data plan, and slide my iPhone on over to Andrea (who shares my plan), and everyone’s happy.

So what are my thoughts on the iPhone, based on a couple of weeks of usage? Read on.

First of all, the user interface is great. It’s very intuitive, and I can see why the iPhone (and iPod Touch) have been so popular. What you have to remember, though, is that Apple has never marketed the iPhone as a “smartphone”—it’s just an iPod with a phone built in. So it’s a little hard to get used to the fact that there isn’t much you can customize on the device; you use it the way Apple intends you to, end of story. (An example: To my knowledge—and I’ve looked—you can’t change the sound that the phone uses when you receive a new mail, or when you get a text message. You can create custom ringtones, and assign different ringtones to different contacts, but you can’t change the sound that’s used when you get a text? What’s that about?)

Accessing the internet is also done well. Apple made a great choice: Any time you try to access the internet, the phone looks for wifi networks first, and if it finds one, it tries to use that. Only if it can’t— or if it’s a network you don’t have connection info for—it will then fall back to the 3G network. Speaking of which, the 3G network is as fast as Rogers’ marketing would have you believe; there’s not a noticeable speed difference between the 3G network and wifi.

And, while we’re on the topic of the internet, the built-in web browser (a mobile version of Safari) is also great. Just like anything else on the phone, you can tell that the engineers really “got” the whole paradigm of the user interface for the iPhone. Similarly, the Map application (with GPS) is pretty good, and I like the way they do SMS. I didn’t so much like the weather app, but The Weather Network had a better one, which was free, so it wasn’t such a big deal, and I don’t like their Notes application (which doesn’t even sync with notes in Outlook), but I’m sure I’ll soon be downloading a better one.

Speaking of downloading apps, here’s my biggest problem with the phone, although it wasn’t a surprise: Everything drives you to iTunes. Want to get a cool application? You download it from iTunes. (There are many, many free ones, so you don’t necessarily have to spend money, if you don’t want; so far, I haven’t paid for anything from iTunes, even though I have to log in with my username and password to download anything.) Want to get a ringtone? Go to iTunes, buy one for a dollar, and then spend another dollar to convert it to a ringtone. According to Apple’s documentation, you’d think that’s your only option. (Luckily, I found an article that explains how to create ringtones for free, using the iTunes app on your computer. Unfortunately, it didn’t work at first; I created three ringtones, and only one would transfer to the phone. I must have spent a couple of hours on it, before I read a bit further in the comments for that article, and found out that your ringtone has to be forty seconds or less, and two of mine were over. Fixing that got me working, but the frustrating thing is that one of them was only over by a few milliseconds, so it was hard to track down.) Even to sync the phone with Outlook, for my calendar and contacts, it goes through iTunes. (And synchronizing takes a long time; two or three minutes, compared to the few seconds it used to take with my old phone, using Microsoft ActiveSync.)

Another cool feature—which should be the most obvious feature—is that I have a phone that can play music again. My last phone could play music, it had a mobile version of Windows Media Player on it, and I put in a 1GB memory card to load songs onto, but the problem is that the device was buggy, and WMP would stop playing music after a couple of weeks of usage. (The song would “play,” and WMP would control everything just like normal, but no sound would come out.) So just the fact that I can listen to music from time to time is a nice plus. And, along those lines, I like the way the headphones work, that came with it. It’s very intuitive to use them to listen to music, and/or answer the phone (using the built-in microphone, which doubles as a button for playing/pausing music, and answering the phone).

There is one more downfall, though, and it’s one that I can’t fault Apple for: Before buying this phone, I had already done all of that research into the Palm Pre. So I keep expecting the iPhone to be able to do things that the Pre will be able to do, and it doesn’t quite work as I’d expect it to. For example, I was surprised to find that I can’t get photos off of the iPhone onto a computer, unless I do it through iTunes! I can plug the phone into Ubuntu, and Ubuntu will recognize it as a camera, but it can’t find the photos. Similarly, the only way to get pictures onto the device are to take them with the built-in camera, or transfer them through iTunes. Oh, speaking of photos, there was another limitation that absolutely floored me: The iPhone can’t send or receive images through SMS. What?!? Phones have been doing this for years! Why would Apple cripple that? The only way for me to send someone a photo from the phone is to email it to them. Now, it’s great that I can send and receive email from the iPhone, but sometimes I’d really just prefer to send it as a text message. And if someone tries to send me a photo over SMS, all I get is a text message from Rogers, saying, “by the say, someone has sent you a picture. Go to picturemessaging.rogers.com from your phone or from a computer to view it.” And the really frustrating thing? I can access any website on the internet using Safari on the iPhone—except for the picturemessaging.rogers.com site from Rogers! So if you ever send me a picture in a text message, I won’t be able to view it until I’m able to get to a computer. Frigging ridiculous.

Anyway, I don’t want to end on a rant, because I really do like the device. The phone works great, the apps are great, and the user interface is great. I just can’t wait for the Pre to be released, so that I can get my hands on a real smartphone.

The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha

There is something I’ve wanted to write about for… well, a few years now. But I wasn’t allowed to. Andrea has written a novel, called The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha.

The books is currently available on Amazon.ca (and Amazon.com for that matter). It won’t officially be released until January 27^th, but you can pre-order it.

However, even though the book isn’t supposed to be released until January 27^th, it was spotted in Yorkdale! We stopped by yesterday to see it.

My Next Phone? (Pt. III)

I think I’ve been behind the curve. I’ve been resisting getting a phone that’s so dependent on the internet—meaning that it’s dependent on my cellular carrier’s ridiculous rates—but that’s the wave of the… er… present. It definitely hit me during the video I linked to in my last post. (And, incidentally, now that I’m in Windows, I notice that I didn’t get the symbol right in Pre. So I’m not going to bother trying anymore. It looked weird in Firefox on Ubuntu, it looks weird in Firefox on Windows, and it’s just a square in Chrome and IE on Windows.)

Maybe I should have gotten an iPhone when it was still cool. I mean, I’d rather wait for the Pre, but it’s not going to be released until “the first half of 2009” and I don’t know if they’ll release an unlocked version (like they did with the Centro). In fact, they have some kind of exclusive launch with an American carrier, so there’s a good chance that they won’t have an unlocked version—meaning I could be waiting a long time for the thing to get released.

I might get stuck getting an iPhone just until a better phone can come along.

My Next Phone? (Pt. II)

For my last few posts, I’ve been putting up images and videos. I should have warned my readers not to get used to it, because my blog is still mostly text-based, but unfortunately, I didn’t. And I got a comment from a friend of mine, saying that I should keep doing that. So he’s going to be disappointed, because I doubt most of my posts in the future are going to have images or videos. (Sorry Stephen.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I found another video of the Palm Pre̅. (I apologize for the weird symbol above Pre̅; I’m not sure if that’s the right character to use for that e̅.) It’s a very long video—over an hour—but it shows off the device very well. (As it should, since it’s the unveiling of the device at CES.)

My next phone?

Anyone who’s seen the iPhone knows that it’s very cool technology. Just from the commercials it looks great, but if you’ave actually gotten your hands on one, the impression is backed up; it’s impressive.

But I didn’t want one, because it’s not really built for synchronization, it’s built for doing everything over the air. (It can synchronize, but, surprise surprise, it syncs with iTunes.) Which means that you need a good data plan from your carrier—and Canadian cellular service providers are outright thieves when it comes to data costs for cell phones. Rogers came up with a temporary, kind-of-reasonable service plan when they released the iPhone in Canada, but it still wasn’t great when you compare how much we’re paying with Europeans, or… well, anyone else in the world. (That article is probably out of date, but I’m pretty sure the main point still stands.)

But I need something. The phone I’m currently using has gotten worse and worse over the years. (Does software actually degrade over time? Whenever I use a smart phone based on a Microsoft operating system, it seems so.) So I wanted to get away from a Microsoft-based device; what does that leave? RIM? I don’t want live email, which is the thing that device is built around. As mentioned, I don’t really want to do everything over the air; I just want to sync with Outlook (or whatever), which leaves out the iPhone, and also the forthcoming Google device.

So I pretty much settled on the Palm Centro. I haven’t used the Palm OS before, but from what I understand, it’s a lot more stable than any Microsoft-based operating system—especially the mobile ones. But today, I found a new phone, that might become my next phone (depending on when it’s released).

Unfortunately, again, their plan is not to do synchronization—they want to do everything over the air. This seems to be the trend, which means that no matter what phone I switch to, I’m going to have to set aside a large portion of my salary going forward to paying my cellular carrier.

Trees—Merry Christmas! (belated)

I don’t post photos that often, mostly because I don’t carry a camera around with me.

Wait a second… yes I do! My camera phone. I just don’t use it that often. But my last day of work I happened to look out the window, and saw these picturesque trees.

A New Filter For serna

I’m not a huge fan of Starbucks. In fact, I hate their coffee. (I do like the ambiance, though.) However, there is one exception: I like their egg nog latté. So I went in last week for such a drink, and came away with a warm place in my heart for the whole franchise. (It won’t last.)

Here’s why:

• A New Filter For serna
• by sernaferna
• creative input from Starbucks
• INT: A Starbucks.
• serna is standing in line. He notices a display of reusable coffee filters, priced somewhere around $4.99, and picks one up.
• serna
• (to himself)
• Hmm.
• Realizing that he has needed a reusable coffee filter for some time, he keeps the filter in his hand, as he heads up to the counter.
• Starbucks Lady (SL)
• Can I help you?
• serna
• I’ll take an egg nog latté and this filter.
• SL
• Sure!
• Attempts to ring in the filter.
• SL
• It’s not ringing in. I’m going to need to consult my manager.
• serna
• (full of Christmas cheer, and even more patient than usual)
• No problem.
• Starbucks Lady goes into the back, and discusses the issue with her manager.
• She comes back momentarily.
• SL
• Well, it looks like the filter is on us today! We can’t figure out how to ring it in.
• serna
• Sweet! Thanks very much.
• serna takes his latté to a table, to drink it. He notices the Starbucks Lady taking down the display of coffee filters, so that she won’t have to go through this again.

So I currently have a warm feeling about Starbucks because they gave me a free coffee filter. And I’m even happier about it because when Andrea looked at the box, it said $14.99, not $4.99—and which is a more reasonable price for a coffee filter, you have to admit—which means they saved me even more money than I’d thought.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite fit my coffee maker. The lid won’t close.



But what the heck. It was a free filter, and the only tradeoff is that some of the steam escapes when I make my coffee. (And it’s a bit louder.)

Fun video

I thought this was kind of fun. Hopefully you do too.

And it's still only 1:30.

The first question Andrea asked me this morning was, “Do you need to be at work on time today?” Which usually signifies that she doesn’t, and she’s hoping we can sleep in a little—and that’s usually fine with me. As long as I don’t have any early meetings, I love sleeping in. And I didn’t, so we did.

Unfortunately, the first thing I did when we got in the car was turn on 680 News, only to find out that there was an accident on the 401, they’d shut down the express lanes at Jane St., and the whole highway was a parking lot all the way from Dixie out to Allen. And, since I drop Andrea off at the subway, this meant we’d have to get onto Wilson, and take that all the way over to the subway station.

This meant almost two hours in the car, an hour and a half of which we spent behind some idiot in a Camry, who didn’t know how to drive. (When you come to a red light, here is the procedure you should follow: advance up to the back of the car in front of you, leaving a couple of feet of room, and then stop the car. Period. Done. Wait until the light turns green, and the car in front of you moves, and then follow. Don’t leave two car-lengths in front of you, and edge up inch by inch, wasting your gas and frustrating the people behind you.)

Luckily, we had to pull off to get gas, which meant that we could get out from behind the person in the Camry.

After I dropped Andrea off at the subway, I was able to get back on the highway, and then, since I was past the accident, the highway was empty. No cars anywhere. Smooth sailing, right?

Wrong. I got on the DVP, only to find that there had been an accident there, too. So again, traffic was slow. And the best part: At one point, I drove by a flock of birds, and something spooked them, so they all took off at once. And as they did, they all decided to drop a little present on my car. I don’t know if they also hit the cars in front and behind me, but they got me all over the place. There are now dozens of big, green, gross patches on my car, from their poop. I wish I was exaggerating, but my car is covered. It was a large flock of birds.

I finally got to the office around 10:45. I was supposed to join some colleagues for lunch, but I needed to catch up on my work, so I decided to eat at my desk. I went down to the caf to grab a BLT, which turned out to be terrible. The toast was burnt, they used the spines of the lettuce instead of the leafy part, and the bacon… well, the bacon was fine. They just didn’t put it onto the sandwich with love.

So that’s my day as of 1:30. I’m not going to ask what else could go wrong, because on TV, any time someone asks that question, bad things happen.

The Heart, the Hospital, and the Family

Wednesday

It was becoming all too common, this type of trip to the hospital. Congestive heart failure, a call to the ambulance, and a quick trip to emerg, followed by a move to ICU, and then PCU. Maybe he would spend a couple of days there, and maybe he’d spend a week; it depended on how serious the failure had been. Occasionally, it wouldn’t just be congestive heart failure, it would be an actual heart attack. He usually couldn’t tell the difference, unless it was a major heart attack. They’d run their tests at the hospital, and let him know.

This time it was different. It was a heart attack, a major one, and the doctors told his wife that she should prepare for the worst. There wasn’t anything else they could do for him, medically speaking, except make him comfortable. It was news she had been dreading for too long; for the past year he’d been into the hospital about once a month, and she knew that it had to be a matter of time before his last trip to the hospital. She steeled herself, and then called the kids, being honest with them but careful to hide any of her own feelings about the matter. (Which were confused anyway.)

The kids—one in Toronto, three hours away, and one in Ottawa, eight hours away—immediately cleared their affairs, and began the trip home. And meanwhile she sat with him, as she’d done many times before, feeding him water and ice chips, and being there for him. He may or may not have realized that she was there, in his drugged state, but that didn’t matter. She was there.

The son was the first to arrive, in the early afternoon. He and his wife made their way to the ICU, and went in to sit with them. There wasn’t anything they could do but sit; the job of feeding him ice chips and water was already taken, and he wasn’t able to do much talking. Not that he was communicative at the best of times. They just sat with him, and tried not to think of it as watching him die. His son wondered about the state of his soul; was he ready? If not, it might be too late.

Early in the evening the three of them left for a quick supper, and then returned to continue their vigil. News was a scarce commodity; doctors were loathe to give it and were never present anyway; the nurse practitioners were more willing to give news, but they were hardly ever present either. When news did filter down to the family, it was difficult to know which news was important, which was accurate, and which was simply opinion.

Later in the evening the daughter arrived with her boyfriend (who went to the house, to give the family their privacy). The son and his wife left the room, so as not to crowd it, and the daughter took her turn sitting with him. The family was spread between his room, a waiting room, and the house, but they were all thinking the same thing: “I wish there was something I could do.”

Nobody knew what would happen, but everyone feared that it would happen soon. Most prepared to stay throughout the night, but his wife knew better. They couldn’t do anything for him at the hospital, so it would be better to go home and get some sleep. Around midnight she passed this advice on to them, they took it, and they left. She stayed behind, however, to be with him through the night, and continue to feed him ice chips and water.

Thursday

The kids woke up the next morning to see a note from their mother on the kitchen counter. She’d come home for a few hours of sleep, but would they please wake her at 10? They didn’t have to, however, as she woke up herself, shortly before they were supposed to do so. Once everyone had showered and had some breakfast—and once they’d made a quick run to Tim Horton’s—they set off for the hospital.

Thursday was much the same as Wednesday afternoon had been. News rarely came from the medical staff, and when it did, it was bleak. They spent the day at the hospital, except for a brief trip to a restaurant for an early supper.

As the day progressed, he seemed to do better, to get stronger, to become more coherent. But nobody let their hopes get too high; the phrase that kept sticking in the mind was “there’s nothing else we can do for him, except make him comfortable.”

Friday

Friday started much like Thursday had. The family woke up, got ready, and went to the hospital. But things changed a little on Friday afternoon: his doctor called, and said that he wasn’t going to give up hope. Although the hospitals in Canada weren’t able to do anything, maybe the hospital in Detroit could? They have medical technology there that we don’t yet have in Canada—such as an artificial heart, that can be used during a long operation—and maybe that technology could be used to give him hope?

He would start the paperwork, and start talking to the people in Detroit about a bypass. The family accepted this news with cautious optimism, reluctant to give up on their pessimism, after it had become such a part of their lives. And anyway, there was time to think about it, before a decision would have to be made. Nothing would happen before Monday, at the earliest, since there was all the paperwork that had to be filled out.

His doctor had already sent x-rays and other materials to the doctors in Detroit, and the doctors in Detroit were beginning the paperwork. He’d go to Detroit, they’d examine him, and they’d talk about next steps. It was beginning to look like he might be in an ambulance as early as Saturday, but they had changed their minds now, and maybe it would be an angioplasty instead of a bypass.

Again, the family left the hospital for a quick, early supper. In the middle of supper, his wife got a call on her cell phone, from his doctor: The American doctors were still working on it; at this point, they were calling all of the Canadian hospitals, to confirm that there was nothing they could do. (OHIP would pay for an operation in the States, if it’s something that no Canadian hospital could do. But if a Canadian hospital could do something, then of course he’d be sent there, instead.) Since the family had already been through this with the hospital in London, they knew that there was nothing they could do, so this was just a formality.

Then they returned back to the hospital, they were surprised to find that he had had visitors. (Visitors who had brought some very nice chocolates.) But they were absolutely floored to hear that the plan had changed again; he was no longer going to be sent to Detroit, he was going to be sent to London, and he was going to be sent tonight. And in fact the ambulance would be there any minute, and they needed to get him packed. London didn’t have an artificial heart, but London had specialists, and London had a CCU, so he’d be in good hands in London.

The kids cleared out, his wife made sure he was packed, and then his wife and daughter got in the car, to head for London, to meet the ambulance there. Unfortunately, it turned out that “any minute now” was wishful thinking. It was hours before the ambulance picked him up in Chatham, so his wife and daughter waited in the waiting room in London for a long time.

Saturday

The family all met up near London, at a relative’s house. His wife reported that things were promising. The doctors in London were very annoyed that they hadn’t been consulted, when he made previous trips to the hospital. Of course they could do something for him! The options currently on the table were now an angioplasty, a triple bypass, or maybe even a transplant.

And so he stayed in London. There was nothing else the kids could do, so they left to go back home, and await further news.

Who knows how long the saga will continue—but it probably won’t be posted about here. At least not in this level of detail.

Two Movies

I went and saw the new Bond flick Quantum of Solace on Saturday night. It was great. I exchanged some text messages with James about it, and he only rated it a 5.1, but I give it a 7. (I assume he was rating it out of 10; that’s what I was rating it out of.) The theatre was packed. I went to the 6:30 showing, and got there at 6:00, thinking I was being so smart, and would be able to get a good seat. I walked into the theatre, with sixteen pounds of popcorn in my hands, to find that there were hardly any seats left. Luckily I was by myself, so I managed to find a seat. (And also luckily, it was near the back. I hate sitting at the very front—it hurts my neck after a while.)

Then, on Monday night, I went to see Burn After Reading. On Rotten Tomatoes the “Top Critics” only gave it 56%, whereas the general population gave it 75%. I can see why the critics rated it so low, but I can also see why the “regular folks” rated it so high; personally, I liked it. It was “quirky”. It took a long time to build, but once it started building, it just kept going and going. Started out very slow, and then got faster and faster with the pace. But this time, the experience in the theatre was the opposite: I was the only person in the theatre.

This seems to be a habit of mine, when it comes to George Clooney movies. The first movie I ever saw him in was Ocean’s 11, which I saw with Jeremy. If I remember correctly, the theatre was empty with the exception of him, myself, and one other woman. (Actually, “habit” is too strong a word, because it only happened the twice. I saw him in Michael Clayton, and the theatre was pretty full, and his other movies that I’ve seen—Syriana, Ocean’s 12, and Good Night, And Good Luck—I saw at home, on TMN or DVD. Oh, and I guess you could probably count South Park, since he did a voice in that; I saw that in a very full theatre. Also with Jeremy.)

Post 900

I don’t really have anything to say, except that this is my 900^th post to the blog. Another hundred posts, and I’ll be posting a “best of the last 500 posts” post.

Which, at the rate that I’m posting these days, should be some time in the year 2012.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

If you’re a member of a certain socio-economic subset of the population, you have to claim to love old movies. (You don’t have to watch them, you just have to claim to love them.) So, as a matter of duty, I have a copy of 12 Angry Men on my DVD shelf, and a copy of Citizen Kane, and probably some others as well. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy those movies—I wouldn’t have bought them if they weren’t great—I’m just aiming my finely-honed sarcasm at myself.

I might have another movie to add to the shelf, if I can find it on DVD. I’d never seen Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf before today, and it was a great movie. There are two things that might stop me from buying it, though:

1. I don’t know if Andrea would like it
2. I don’t know if it would be as enjoyable the second time around.

But my DVD collection aside, if you claim to love old movies, check this one out.

Oh, one more thing I am forced to say by law: They’d never make a movie like that today.

Antiperspirant

Most bloggers don’t write about antiperspirant at all, but this is my second post about it. And do you know why? Because I’m a rebel. I don’t follow the blogging crowds, I do my own thing. (Then again, the first post was more than three years ago, so maybe I’m not that much of a rebel; I’m too scared to take on these challenging topics more than once within a year…)

I tried a new antiperspirant today, and realized too late that has a very strong smell. (For my Guyanese readers, it “smells high”.) It’s not a bad smell, just a very strong one—especially for someone like me, who doesn’t wear cologne. So every once in a while I catch scent of it, and think to myself, “who the heck is wearing that perfume?!?” Only to think a few seconds later, “oh yeah, it’s me.”

I hope the smell doesn’t carry. I don’t want to annoy everyone else in the office. Not that it smells bad, I just don’t like people wearing cologne/perfume in the office.

Spam Comments

All of the sudden, today, I’m getting bombarded with little comments on my blogs, on posts that don’t seem to warrant comments. Commenters are leaving little comments like “people should read this,” and “well said,” and “you write well.” And, like I say, they’re mostly commenting on posts that don’t seem to be anything special.

And then the penny dropped, and I started clicking the links for people’s names. They’re all apparently spam bots, leaving little comments randomly on blog posts just to get out links to their web sites. So I’m trying to delete them as they come in, to keep my blogs clean of bots. We’ll see how well I do trying to keep up…

“Star Wars”—an a capella tribute to John Williams

Enjoy!

serna’s Thoughts on Obama

All around the world—quite literally—people are writing about the new president-elect of the U.S., Barack Obama. And why should I be left out? I’ll add my voice to the noise.

First of all, I’m pleasantly surprised that he won. Up until a few days before the election, I was hoping that he’d win, but expecting McCain to pull it off. (This was very much driven by my reaction to the 2004 election; I was very surprised when Bush got reelected, and it made me cynical, so I was expecting the same to happen in 2008. In retrospect, I can see all of the reasons why Barack won, but at the time, I wasn’t expecting it to happen.) It was only in the last few days of the campaign that I started to believe that Obama could pull it off, and even then I was amazed to see the margin by which he won. 349 electoral votes vs. 163 is a landslide victory, in my mind.

Speaking of his margin, Bush claimed to have a “mandate” from the American people when he got reelected, even though he was elected by a tiny margin, but Obama cleaned up. This my friends, was a mandate from the American people. They’ve clearly spoken, and I’m hoping that they’ll be heard by their representatives.

And let’s celebrate the fact that the Americans have their first black president. (Andrea and I are cynical about this ever happening in Canada.) This is no small thing, and it’s not just a symbolic thing either. It really is important, especially for black youth. There aren’t enough role models for them to follow; they’ve been told for years that you can be anything you want to be, but reality has not seemed to back that sentiment up. Now that a black man has been elected president, they have a very concrete role model that they can follow. (A video I linked to in my previous post touches on this.) I suppose you could say that this is still symbolic, even if it is important; I won’t argue the point.

There’s another piece of good news, and Andrea and I were discussing this morning: Obama’s win will send a message to people that change is possible. Maybe—and this is probably wishful thinking here—maybe this election will get people to start thinking about the possibility of a third party candidate. Americans really have a two-party system (and Canada essentially has a two and a half party system), but that’s not inherent to the process, it’s just because people don’t want to vote for any other parties for fear of throwing their votes away. But going forward, maybe they’ll start thinking about someone new—someone who actually will want change. I mean, despite all of the rhetoric, Obama will probably be a fairly centrist president. (For example, he’s not going to push for universal health care, even though a huge portion of the American people want it.)

So this is all good news. Is there bad news? Yep.

Further to my previous point, People have been talking about Republicans vs. Democrats as if it’s a battle between good and evil, without stopping to consider that both parties are extremely similar in their viewpoints, on almost all issues. Whether they know it or not, the American people would probably have been better of with Ralph Nader as president, instead of Obama. (Although obviously they wouldn’t have gotten the black role model that I discussed above.) I’m definitely glad that he was elected, instead of McCain, but in many ways, an Obama presidency won’t be much different than a McCain presidency would have been. (People have already been saying to Andrea that “imperialism now has a black face”—the point being that American foreign policy isn’t going to drastically change under Obama’s leadership—which isn’t much to be proud of.)

That being said, I also feel sorry for Obama, because it won’t be long before he’ll be getting blamed for the issues he’s inheriting. People sometimes have short memories, and it won’t surprise me if people are claiming, a couple of years from now, that everything was fine before Barack took over. It’s almost guaranteed that the Republicans will start blaming him for America’s economic problems, and claiming that he’s making America less safe—especially when we get a bit closer to the 2012 election—but that’s to be expected; what will be sad is if the general population starts to agree with them.

Also, get ready for Americans to start patting themselves on the back, and getting self-righteous about the fact that they’ve elected a black man president. Race was obviously a huge deal in this election—and I’m impressed with Obama’s handling of it—but it won’t be long before people will start saying that it didn’t matter that he was black, and that Americans—to quote Stephen Colbert—don’t see race. Colbert is calling this one early (in his own inimitable way), and I think he’s right: it won’t be too long before pundits will be saying that this proves racism doesn’t exist anymore in America.

But negatives aside, like most other people in the world, I’m happy Barack was elected president. And who knows? Maybe he really is more progressive then he’s let us believe, and just kept it hidden, since he had to play the game. That would be nice, but there’s no reason to assume it’s the case, other than wishful thinking.

Barack & Curtis: Manhood, Power & Respect

I don’t have first-hand experience with these issues—obviously—but I found this a very fascinating video. Very insightful.

Ras Trent

I once posted a rant about NBC pulling their videos from YouTube. (I’m too lazy to go back and find the link; do a search, if you want to find it.) But their site has gotten much better; you can now view the videos—even if you’re in Canada!—and you can embed them. For example:

Construction Season is almost over

How do you know when winter is starting? Because serna’s lips are chapped all the time. I need to get some better lip balm. Blistex just isn’t cutting it anymore.

P.S. You’re welcome. I know all of my blog readers have been fervently worrying lately, saying to themselves, “When oh when will serna post about the state of his lips?!?”