Must Sleep

In my old age I seem to be developing into an insomniac, unfortunately, and right now I have it pretty bad. It's definitely stress-related, and I've always had some trouble sleeping when I'm stressed, as do most people from time to time. But this is far worse than normal.

It started Monday night, when I might have gotten an hour's worth of sleep. I lay there awake until about 4:30, then my housemate woke me up at 5:30 when she got up to do field work, and I never got back to sleep. I couldn't sleep Tuesday night either, even after a dose and a half of Sominex. I had to cancel a seminar I was supposed to give in Chapel Hill because I didn't feel like I could make the drive, or produce a coherent sentence even if I did.

So with the pressure of the seminar off, and being so sleep-starved, I thought I'd collapse easily last night. But I didn't. I did get to sleep eventually, but it wasn't until at least 3:00 AM, and I must have woken up a dozen times between then and 8:00.

If I don't sleep tonight I'm going to try and get a prescription for some Halcyon or Valium or something.

Quotes of the Week

"This is not a violent death, so there is no ground for speculations of this kind.” -- weird comment from murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin about the man he had poisoned, Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko was at the time of his poisoning investigating the murder (likely on orders from Putin) of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

"I looked into his heart and I know his soul. He is a good man." -- Jackass, a few years ago, regarding Putin.

Some Exciting Research

Here in coastal NC, the local shrimping industry has been hit pretty hard by cheap imported shrimp. However, we here at IMS believe we can help produce a superior low-fat American product.

My First Nor'Easter

At last I can truly feel like a coastal NC resident as I am experiencing my first Nor'Easter. The wind blew like crazy all night last night. In fact, I had to sleep on the couch as the storm window in my bedroom was rattling in the wind and keeping me awake. This morning on the drive in to the lab the wind was rocking my Jeep from side to side. It's cold and it's raining and still blowing, and it's all expected to last though tomorrow night.

Academic Whack-a-Mole

We've now moved into what I like to refer to as the academic whack-a-mole phase of the semester. That's when you have so many things to do that you get behind on something and spend all your time working on it, but by the time you've caught up you've fallen behind one something else, etc, etc ad nauseum.

The current mole in need of some serious whacking is a seminar I have to give next week in Chapel Hill on the fluid dynamics of copepods. I've been working on it for the better part of a month and it just doesn't seem to be coming together properly. If I do a crap job, it'll be in front of the whole department. It's one thing to stand up and teach a class for a bunch of undergraduates who don't know anything anyway, but I'm seriously stressed out about this. So much so that I didn't sleep last night, which means I can't work productively today, so that puts me another day behind!

Interesting Factoid

It occcured to me earlier today that we've been in Iraq for roughly as long as we were in World War II, though with somewhat less satisfying results, mostly owing to the fact that our commander in chief is a low-grade moron.

From December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945 is 1347 days. 1347 days from the day we invaded Iraq (March 20, 2003) turns out to be one week from today, November 26.

Note that this comparison is actually grossly unfair to FDR, since it doesn't include all the time Jackass & Co spent planning the war while pretending to try to find a diplomatic solution. The better comparison would be to start Jackass' clock off at September 11 2001, when his brain apparently seized on the idea of attacking Saddam.

This seems dubious.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Possibly interesting, but take it with a grain of salt. Apparently there are only 3 people with my name, but 2 of them were in my home room in high school.

Quote of the Week

“I may not have the type of voice you like, but I can sing. You can’t take that away from me, ‘cause singing is a gift from God, and when people say I can’t sing, it’s kind of like insulting God.” -- Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas

Tired Old White Men Commission

So the Iraq Commission I alluded to in my previous post that's supposed to find a way to get us out of Jackass's miserable mess, consists almost entirely of tired old white men, retreads from previous administrations. There is also a tired old black man (Vernon Jordan), plus a white woman (Sandra Day O'Connor) so tired she had to retire from a job that comes with three months vacation a year. Somehow this is supposed to be promising.

Hey dumbasses, here is a two-stop plan for getting the U.S. out of Iraq:

1) Send a bunch of airplanes in.
2) Fly everyone the fuck out.

Sitting Out 2008

It looks like I'll be sitting out the 2008 election, because Russ Feingold, the only candidate worth a damn, has announced he isn't running.

Meanwhile, Jackass is looking to his daddy's friends to bail him out again, just as he did so many times in the past when he needed to dodge the draft, get financing for his little oil company, get into baseball to pick up a few easy millions after he'd run his little oil comapany into the ground, and get into politics when he couldn't think of anything else to do with his pathetic life. Daddy's Secretary of State and CIA director are now apparently going to help him out of Iraq.

Jackass Quotes of the Week

"But if the Democrats were to take control, their policy is pretty clear to me: it's cut and run."—George W. Bush, Oct. 24, 2006

"The Democrats are the party of cut and run."—George W. Bush, Oct. 10, 2006

"I don't know how many members of Congress said, "Get out right now." I mean, the—candidates running for Congress and the Senate. I haven't seen that chart. I—I—some of the comments I read, well, they said, 'Well, look, we just need a different approach to make sure we succeed.' Well, you can find common ground there."—George W. Bush, Nov. 8, 2006

One more...

Ex-SecDef Donald Rumsfeld!!!

It's Over

Easily the most incompetent administration in modern U.S. history came to a de-facto end last night, and not a bit too soon. Jackass & Co will continue to screw up Iraq because the Democrats won't have the votes to do what should be done, which is to pull the financial plug on the whole thing. But otherwise that bunch of clowns is politically as dead as disco.

Personal favorite careers ended last night:

Ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (whoo freaking hoo!)
Ex-Sen. James Talent
Ex-Sen. George Allen
Ex-Sen. Conrad Burns
Ex-Rep. Charles Taylor (corrupt bozo from my old district around Asheville NC)
Ex-Rep. Katherine Harris

Adios, morons!

Quote of the Day:

"You have been sat here too long for any good you have done. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go." -- Oliver Cromwell, dissolving the Rump Parliament, 1653

Election Day Follies

Today, if the polls are to be believed, the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives and gain ground, but probably not control, in the Senate. As far as legislation goes I don't think it matters very much who controls the Senate, since the Democratic House will deadlock with a Republican president in any case. It will matter for judicial appointments, though.

So far the following have been reported. The governor of South Carolina was turned away at the polls because he left his voter registration card at home. A poll worker in Kentucky was arrested for trying to strangle a voter. Daggett County TX has registered 947 voters, which would pass without remark except that the county only has 943 residents. Missouri's chief of elections was asked for a photo ID when she voted, despite such a requirement having been ruled unconstitutional. The FBI is investigating deceptive or intimidating calls made to likely Democratic voters in Virginia, and widespread glitches with voting machines in Indiana, Ohio and Florida have led to delays and the use of paper ballots.

In a sign of the times, Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist at the last minute bailed out of an appearance with Jackass in Pensacola.

UFO sighting?

At 6:35 this evening I was walking my dog along the shore in Atlantic Beach, between Oceanana Pier and Sportsman's Pier (sadly closed for good last week, and dark) when I heard a low rumbling sound, sort of like thunder. It wasn't that loud and sort of blended with the sound of the surf, so I didn't take immediate notice, but after a few seconds I looked toward the water.

I saw a line of four orange-ish lights, sort of like roman candles, moving mainly horizontally and a little up. They were clearly miles out over the water, and I estimated 6-8 degrees above the horizon. They lasted several seconds then faded out. Then another line of lights issued apparently from some unseen aircraft (it was already pitch black) moving in a slightly different direction. Those lasted a few seconds too. Once they faded I saw nothing more, and the sound soon died out.

I have no idea what it was, except maybe a training exercise involving military jets and live fire with tracer rounds or something. Or else we're being invaded by aliens.

It was a little spooky. Sort of a "what the hell is that?....JESUS, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT????" reaction.