Every other Friday

I work two jobs. One of them has very regular hours, and I even am afforded the opportunity to take every other Friday off (today is one of those Fridays). The other job is sporadic, stressful, and sometimes rewarding, and it usually has me working one job or the other every day of the week, but it pays quite well. The combination of these two jobs has taken me to the point, though, where I feel that getting every other Friday off isn't just a perk, it's a necessity. With as much decompression and relaxation as is on my schedule today, I just can't imagine what I would do if I had to work today.

As such, the pure pleasure that I used to take as a child in having a day off of school isn't something that I feel on my SDOs (Scheduled Days Off). It feels more like just a necessary step in refueling for the next two-week cycle, and that's vaguely unsettling to me.

But on the other hand, I can't really complain. My second job has treated me exceedingly well financially. If I hadn't been working the second job, I would still have some bills not paid off, I wouldn't have been able to get my new computer, and I wouldn't be able to go to China in less than two months. At this point, complain though I may, I've got no choice but to conclude that the stress is more than worth it for the financial and material comfort that it's brought. Financial stress is its own beast, and I'd rather be tired and whiny about a job than financially unstable.

Also, below is what I would have looked like if I was in the music video for "Take On Me" by A-Ha.

Fargus...

Personal Irresponsibility - Blame the Media

Don't like how the war in Iraq is going? Well, there's a simple solution to that! Don't blame the Administration who brought us there. Blame the media for not reporting what you so desperately want to be true!

Snarky and sarcastic, I know. Apologies all around for that. But really, how desperate is the Republican base to absolve Bush of any responsibility in the war that he started? In the war that he was ready to deliberately provoke and mislead in order to start?

"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."

It also described the president as saying, "The U.S. might be able to bring out a defector who could give a public presentation about Saddam's W.M.D," referring to weapons of mass destruction.

This is a man who, despite his assertions to the contrary, was desperate to have this war, for some reason. He ejected the weapons inspectors that he had pushed the U.N. to let into Iraq, and he was willing to get an Iraqi to publicly testify about weapons he already knew didn't exist. This is a man who, almost three years ago, stood proudly under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." Meanwhile, troops are still dying, Iraq is mired in a civil war (which is still a civil war, by any other name), and there's no clear exit strategy.

You all know all of this. If you're a liberal, it outrages you. If you're a conservative, you've likely bought into the lie that we went into Iraq to "free the Iraqi people," and not because of the pressing threat that the WMDs posed to the United States. If you're reading this, you've likely got an opinion one way or the other.

Here's my point, though. If you think the war was a shortsighted, ill-advised farce that has undermined our country both domestically and internationally, you probably want Bush to live up to his credo of personal responsibility. That position makes sense. What doesn't make sense is when Bush's followers have to attack everybody but the President for the handling of the mistakes for which he is and should be ultimately responsible.

If we can't trust the media to bring us the truth from Iraq, then who can we trust, if we're to adhere to the conservative talking points about the liberal media trying to undermine the war effort? Do we listen to the Administration, which certainly has a vested interest in selling the war as anything but a failure of epic proportions? Do we listen to right-wing bloggers who've never set foot in Iraq and never will? Do we trust members of Congress, like Howard Kaloogian, who use blatant misinformation to try to pull the wool over our eyes about the nature of the situation in Iraq?

Pardon me, but none of those options seem very personally responsible.

Fargus...

Maybe not triumphant, but a return all the same

I'm not gonna promise anything, but now that I've got a computer at home that works really well, I'd really like to get back into the blogging game. This will likely involve some kind of overhaul of the layout and such, as well as a rethinking of the overall gist of the subject material.

Last time I stopped blogging regularly, it was because the subject matter got to be stressful enough to me that I just didn't feel like writing about it every day anymore. I've stayed informed over the last six months, and I've kept up conversations on message boards and with my father, mainly, about current events and such, but I just don't have the energy in me to devote this blog solely to such pursuits again.

Here's what I'm thinking, then. I'll toss some movie reviews in here. If something funny occurs to me, I'll try my best to remember to put it up. I'll blog some about current events, and hopefully get some conversation going in the comments in that way. But the biggeest thing that I'd like to add is a semi-regular reflective-type feature. I might muse one week on religion in my life, favorite movies the next, and Futurama the next (everyone who knows me knows that I could go on for days on that topic alone).

Hopefully I haven't alienated everyone, and hopefully I can settle into a format that will keep me adding content regularly.

Fargus...

My New Computer

I got a new computer today. It's a pretty big departure from my old computer in two important ways.

1) It works quickly and well.
2) It's a Mac.

I know about all the vitriol directed toward Macs by otherwise reasonable people all over the place, and you can all save it. I like it, and I like what it can do. I like the way it looks, and I like the way it feels. I like that everything's built in. I like everything about it so far.

I'm not going to promise some stunning return to blogging, but I just thought I'd let y'all know what was up.

Miami

There's not enough time for me to get into the whole thing right now, even if I wanted to (which I don't). Let it be said, though, that the verdict on my Miami vacation is one thumb way up, one thumb way the hell down.