Remember the Wazzup guys? This clip sums up the America our next president is set to inherit. As the New York Times so aptly put it: “The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.” I’m not sure you can pin all of this on an inept administration, but I do know that our next president is stepping into a very unenviable role. And while I don’t think any ticket involving Sarah Palin is a smart move at a time like this, I do admire both of these guys for stepping up to the plate.
No word back from the absentee ballot people. Given that I requested to have the ballot emailed to me, I’m thinking the delayed response is a bad sign. Still have next week to get it sorted so might be worth a trip to the embassy.
First things first. Here’s the old John McCain being all socialist and unrepublican. I really liked that guy. I’ve gotten my absentee ballot request in to the Dade County (Miami, Florida) Elections office, have slim hopes of ever hearing back from them, but figured it’s worth a try. Online, I found three different registration deadlines and three different processes for requesting a ballot. I think I’ve covered my bases as well as I can, but we’ll see how that goes.
Lots of interesting work coming in the door at the moment. It’s a good thing up until I start realizing that I’m the only one who can actually do the work. And there’s my issue. It’s going to continue for some time as I don’t feel comfortable bringing someone else on right now. This means three countries next week, two the week after and two the week after that. Lots of travel, lots of meetings, very little time to get anything done. There must be a better way.
I’m giving myself 6 months to become conversational in Mandarin. With my wife applying to Ph.D. programs, I’m finding myself in need of a little (non-clandestine) project. My software arrived today. My first lesson suggested that this will be a tougher challenge than originally anticipated. We’ll see how it goes.
Disclaimer: I have no idea what the writing in this picture says
After a day spent in Kuala Lumpur for just 2 hours of meetings, a mad dash to the airport with no hope of ever making my flight, a ride with a taxi driver whose unimpressive F1 skills kept hope alive until the last minute, an airport full of bureaucratic processes determined to keep me in Malaysia forever, and a bribe of 2 jumbo bottles of yogurt drink (yes, yogurt drink) which finally got me on a flight home, I was so happy to be back in Singapore. Maybe it’s the decor of the airport, the candy they give you at the immigration counter, or the landscaping on the drive into the city, but Singapore is one of the best places to come home to anywhere in the world.
Once home, we headed up the hill for drinks and made a detour to this stamp machine in Little India. It made my night. It was so entertaining that we bought about 40 stamps when we only needed three. Next time I’m having a rough day, I think this will be the pilgrimage that rights my mood. And if we get to a point where we have too many stamps, I’ll know some change is in order.
Saying that this latest financial crisis is a sign that capitalism doesn’t work is like saying that the law of gravity doesn’t work because you fell out of a tree. If anything, this latest financial crisis has demonstrated that capitalism works brilliantly as a system that self corrects, even when its greediest players abuse it. So let’s suck it up, stop whining and keep moving forward or this is going to be a much longer crisis than it needs to be.
In a move that reaffirmed my belief that McCain is the right candidate caught up in a wrong campaign, he defended Obama’s character in a rally filled with your usual sign shaking fanatics who subsequently booed him.
Has anyone ever considered the fact that McCain’s voter base is full of the sorts of people he’s hated for years? The kinds of people who are “scared” to raise their kids under Obama’s presidency? The kinds of people who think “he’s an Arab” (pronounced: Ay-rabb)? The people who are ignorant enough to believe he’s a “terrorist”?
It’s really difficult to imagine John McCain circa 2002 sharing a Miller with any of these people outside a double-wide, shouting Amen inside a mega church, or for that matter, using his power to help Palin persecute her family nemeses. That’s right, the real McCain isn’t running for president, and frankly I find that disappointing. Because this is one Democrat who thinks the country would have been better off in his hands. However, given the circumstances, I think I’ll be voting for the other guy.
I think it’s worth noting here that my “things I’ve put off for way too long” list contains some pretty disturbing items. For example, the pile of books that currently obstructs my living room (and any clarity of thought in said room) due to a lack of shelving. We haven’t even slept in our master bedroom yet because we haven’t found that “perfect bed”. Perfect or not, this weekend is about getting things done. And there’s a lot to do.
Speaking of which… I was asked a few weeks ago if I’d write an article for a magazine about “something marketing/design/communications/brand-ish”. Not much of a brief, but the article’s due on Wednesday and it’s still no more than an item on my to do list. I think there’s something worth writing about in the world’s current obsession with all things small, scarce and special. Especially in a crowded urbanizing world where credit cards, loyalty points and mass retailers give us access to pretty much anything we could ever want. Not the most original topic, but the thought of submitting this blog entry to the magazine and titling it “The Boutique Movement” did slip my mind a sentence or two ago.
I’ve watched from abroad as the Western media turned financial crisis into financial calamity. All the while, I naively thought that there would be none of this toxic hype coming from the media here in Singapore…
Unfortunately, the Straits Times has managed to prove that belief wrong.
Wouldn’t it be nice to awake at 7am on November 4th, walk outside your home and find a little box tied with red white and blue ribbon. Inside, you find a note on Senate stationary carrying the faint smell of Marlboros and cheap beer. The note reads:
“Dear American,
You’ve been punked!
Sincerely,
John McCain”
You’d drop the note and grin as the past three months came into focus. All of a sudden, this Palin nonsense would make perfect sense. Obama would be president, but you’d start to think the Republicans were alright. Well, almost. It’s a nice thought.
