Senator Kennedy,

I am very concerned about the implications of the pending legislation to increase the amount and scope of the FCC’s indecency fines. Indecency has always been difficult to define subject, and I feel that by not only increasing the fines but also directly fining performers/personalities (as opposed to the network itself) is going to stifle creativity and freedom of speech on the airwaves.

What troubles me most is that the subject of these fines is so nebulous. The FCC and the Government has always used “community standards” as the most clear guideline, and that doesn’t really clarify the situation any further.

If this legislation passes, a performer will have to wait, potentially for months, to find out if something they said was deemed indecent by the FCC, and if they will be fined. Add this lag time into the already unclear “community standards”, and the prospects for free speech are even more dismal. Let the market decide who is decent and indecent, as it has for years.

As a constituent, I implore you to vote against this bill. Don’t let the already eroding civil liberties and rights of the American public be further eroded by those elected by us.

Still waiting for my interim Security Clearance… In the meantime I am working on some straightforward Java apps, and trying to figure out the App framework that is under development here.

We saw The Battle of Algiers this weekend and it was good, but seemingly long. It really was relevant to todays political climate, and it doesn’t surprise me that the Pentagon screened the film recently to help understand what’s going on in Iraq.

was successful in her epic quest to obtain me a Brighton parking permit, so parking around her place will now be much easier. You are supposed to put the permit in the lower left corner of the rear window, but I was reluctant to do so because it would be covering the defroster, and I was afraid that removing the sticker would damage the defroster. But then I found out that the sticker doesn’t expire until February 2007! So it isn’t like I will have to remove the sticker every year. The alternative location for the sticker was the front passenger window, which would have looked retarded, so I just put it in the back.

After work I headed home to have dinner with Corinna, and then headed over to Casa de Poker. Nobody was showing up so Rory and I started watching Sunday’s episode of The Sopranos (which I had yet to see). We got about halfway through the episode (which was great, btw) and people finally started arriving. We played 6 handed most of the night, and for the first time since moving back to Boston I felt good about my poker game. Not great, I still made some dumb errors (getting tangled with Rory in large pots when I was somewhat tilting, trying to raise Abe out of pots when he doesn’t fold anything until at LEAST the turn, etc..), but I was able to catch myself and correct my play mid-game. I ended the night up about \$23 bucks, but that was mostly a few lucky hands towards the end (although I played those lucky hands pretty well).. I was even most of the game. After the game Rory and I finished watching The Sopranos and I went home.

I didn’t get to bed until about 1am, and have been waking up for work at about 7am (to arrive at 8am), so I am a little groggy this morning. I stopped at Dunks for a sandwich because I was really hungry. I am chugging my morning Coke for the caffeine fix (I don’t drink coke that much, but I really need the buzz waking up this early, at least until my sleep schedule normalizes a bit).

There you go, my first real update in awhile, at least since starting work.

1. What was the last song you heard? Well, last night after poker I had a mix cd in the car stereo… I’m not sure what the last song was, but ONE of the last songs I have heard was Public Enemy & Anthrax “Bring the Noise”
2. What were the last two movies you saw? “Starsky & Hutch” and “UHF”
3. What were the last three things you purchased? Spindle of 30 Audio CD-Rs, Ham & Cheese Croissandwich from DD, 20oz Coca-cola
4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? Get the Checkpoint (insurance) inspection done on my car, Get the car washed (before the Checkpoint inspection, so it looks good in their pictures), Do Laundry, Sunday Night Film Club meeting.
5. Who are the last five people you talked to? Adam, Rory, Corinna, Jay, Tim (I guess technically the cashiers at DD and the Cafeteria should be in there, but I didn’t really have conversations with them. If you want to include them then pop Adam & Rory off the list.)

Happily working, working happily…. It feels so good to be a productive member of society again, as well as not being bored for 8 hours a day…

I’ve been really busy lately, but I am going to try and catch the poker game tonight. got me a Brighton parking pass today, so I won’t have to struggle AS MUCH to find parking.

I was zoning out in Hawkeye on the drive in this morning and missed my exit. I took the next exit, hoping to be able to perform a simple turnaround, but that wasn’t happening. I had to take the next exit off of THAT road, then turn around, then get back on 95. Except when I got back on 95 I was now going WITH the traffic headed towards Boston, which meant it took me about 15 minutes to perform this simple backtrack.

I am waiting for someone from IT to understand that I need to be able to install things like the JDK on my workstation. The Co-ops (from RIT) that started with me yesterday can all install software on their machines, so somehow I think I am getting hosed on this one.

I am going to have to come into work late at some point this week to get a parking permit for Brighton.

It has been decided, the car’s name is “Hawkeye”. suggested the name, and it stuck. It works on many levels…. It shares the first initial with Hyundai, it is a MASH reference (and Hyundai is Korean), and it is a badass muscle car name, which my car is most certainly not.

Spent most of today in meetings getting up to speed on what I can know right now (since I don’t yet have my clearance), and waiting for the IT staff to bring me a PC and give me a username/password. Now it is almost time to leave for the day.

It was very nice to have my first commute be a snow-filled one. Hopefully that isn’t some kind of sign… :)

R.I.P. Spalding Gray

The new Honda Civic ads use Ween’s “Ocean man”. I hope they get some good money for that….

The Hyundai doesn’t have a name yet, but it has definitely been driven. It is a lot of fun to drive, actually. I took it up on the highway today to go to the EZ-Pass service center and get the car put on my account. Its a very nice highway car.

Today was my last friday off for awhile… That feels good. I can’t wait to go to work on Friday, for the first time in 16 months.