(no subject)

Moira and I watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story last night.

There were a few things that struck me as a little bit off as we watched, and I had to pause the DVD to inject my own commentary from time to time. But when it was over, I commented to Moira that movies like this help me understand a little bit better why someone would want to be an anarchist. I certainly feel more and more lately like neither major political party here in the states is really doing many of the right things. That said, damn, but I wish I could vote for Marcy Kaptur, who told people facing eviction "So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don't you leave." I'm also going to investigate Bernie Sanders, a socialist and current senator from Vermont. I need to have a more concrete understanding of socialism so I can talk more cogently about the topic when it comes up.

Some people say that as you get older, you settle down. For my part, the older I get and the more I see, the more firmly socially liberal I get. I don't have a good enough understanding of economics to have a really solid opinion on macro-economics, though I'm certainly for universal health coverage. I vote Democrat on a national level because I don't believe any other vote would mean anything. Seeing all the politics in the movie, though, made me think more about trying to get out and vote locally. I believe that if a third party is going to get anywhere, they need to start by getting some local offices and building a base from there. I should look into when local elections happen and whether you can vote absentee and start being a more active voter. Elections during the middle of a work day are absurd; they make it so difficult for people to vote. Shouldn't these things be made as easy, as inviting, as possible?

Anyway, there was some good music in there too. I went and found the chords for Jesus Christ by Woody Guthrie and have played through it a few times. It's a really simple one, and it's stuck in my head.

(no subject)

My DDR pad is developing some hairline cracks on the bottom side. They've been there for a while, but have gotten a lot worse since I last noticed. I think this may be due to a friend of my brother's being a bit stompy on it. Regardless, I just cut up some half-inch plywood to put under it in the hope that that would help the pad to not deform quite so much in use. It doesn't seem to work very well though. I think it really just needs to be on a completely solid floor. Bugger.

And my hands still smell like gasoline, after washing them twice, after using engine degreaser on the Neon. You know what? I really don't like working on cars. Especially the messy parts. But really, I altogether actively dislike doing it. Mechanic Juan is going to help me out with it on Sunday. I'm grateful, because I'm not up to dealing with it, and he's got tools and knows what he's doing.

I'm feeling bleh. I'm going to play more Rock Band. At least it's a little exercise.

(no subject)

Oh dear. It seems Igor the Neon is, while not an ex-automobile, is going to be out of the picture sooner than I thought.

Juan took a look under the car and figured out where the oil is coming from. "Not good news" he said as he climbed out. It's leaking from a location that would require pulling the engine to have enough room to fix. Probably the oil pump, he says. That or something else inside the block (or even a cracked block). It looks like it's time to retire Igor. He's a somewhat unusual car, being a Sport Coupe with a factory DOHC engine. Maybe someone on Craig's List will be interested in buying a fixer-upper.

For my part, Juan is going to let me know whether he's able to work on the Swift with me instead on Sunday and hopefully get it up and running. If not, I'm going to be going to bed early on Sunday night so I can bike to the train station before work. Whee! I'm not going to drive the Neon anymore except in case of emergency; looks like oil is all over the timing belt which, sooner or later, is going to be a death sentence. And I'd like to have a working engine when I sell the beastie.

(no subject)

On the plus side, Devin, akreaveter, farm_cat, a friend of Devin's from Facebook, and myself all just spent a few hours playing Rock Band together. That was great and did wonders for cheering me up!