The daily news

News I don't like hearing:

Tragic and unbelievable suffering in Haiti. My prayers to everyone affected by the earthquake.

Things certain conservatives are saying about Haiti right now. This news bothers me even more than the tragic suffering.

And much more trivially, and much closer to home, this. Just ate some. Raw. Urgh.

The non-wearin' of the green

So I've been neglecting the ol’ blog again. I’ve been in an intense writing cycle at work, which leaves little energy to write anything coherent in my off-hours. Also, the inspiration for blog posts only seems to hit me when I’m in a time or place when I can’t post. Like when I’m driving, or in the shower. Or sitting in my office facing a really ugly report assignment that should have been done three weeks ago and cannot wait any longer. I thought of a great one this morning driving to work, but it evaporated as soon as I got out of the car.

St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone. I didn’t wear green. Didn't eat cabbage or soda bread or green bagels. Didn’t drink any Guinness (not that I didn't want to. I could have used one by 10AM, and a few more that evening). But I did eat a big fat baked potato for dinner!

I'm sure people may be wondering why I have a blog name that references both potatoes and soup. Oddly, while I love potatoes, and I love soup, I don't particularly like potato soup (with or without leeks, bacon, cheese, sour cream, chives, etc.). Too grainy, not enough protein or fiber, often made with Potato Buds, usually kind of tasteless and disappointing in my experience.

So where did the name come from? Well...Spudd is actually an inside joke/nickname with certain close friends (hence the two Ds--truly I'm not trying to be the next Dan Quayle here), and soup seemed an appropriate analogy for the mixture of random odds and ends that characterize my normal thought process. And I even found a template that shows lots of vegetable-colored dots floating in space!

I keep thinking about inserting a little section on the blog page with a soup of the week or something. But then people might want recipes, and I'm not going down that foodie-blog road right now. Maybe I should just list my top ten favorite soups and potato dishes. Not that anyone really wants to know! But maybe it would come in handy for entertainment if I haven't posted anything new in awhile.

Coming up on Reelection Day

OK, did I call it or what? It's been revealed that Vyxsin's name is indeed Jennifer!

And I did not read that TWoP Forum until just now during lunch break.

So does that mean we can call her Jyxsin? Or the Goth team Kyntifer?

I'd be interested to know who first started coining contracted combo names for celebrity couples, and how they caught on. The first one I recall was Bennifer, but then we get TomKat and Brangelina and on and on. Who decides when a couple is worthy of such a moniker and then publicizes their invention? Also, when (and why?) did people start in with the abbreviated nicknames, like J.Lo and LiLo and A-Rod and K-Fed? Was it all P-Diddy's fault, or some lazy media type who didn't want to type out "Jennifer Lopez" over and over? Procrastinating minds want to know.

In other news, the Republicans of my fair township have elected this guy to be our new Supervisor. He "campaigned" with recycled homemade Magic Markered signs and claims he spent less than $250 on his campaign because he didn't waste money sending letters out to residents (and apparently he and his supporters only spent $12 in gas, at 2007 gas prices, cluttering the landscape with his handiwork--which he drove around and removed late last night). He also claims he is a proponent of open space by proxy because his parents preserved their old farm IN ANOTHER TOWNSHIP--why is that relevant? I don't care if it's only a mile away, it's still not in our township, and it never belonged to him personally. And then somewhere else on the website he tells the real truth, that he will stand up for property rights and the ability to do whatever you want with your property. Which makes his claims of support for open space even more dubious. He thinks it's a conflict of interest that his opponent works for a nonprofit local land conservation trust, but I don't see why that's any more of a conflict of interest than working for the state. Anyway, property stewardship maven that I am, I'll save my rant about property-rights people for another day. Ditto for people who carry guns, hate taxes, and plaster American flags all over everything in sight.

His incumbent opponent, who lost by a very small margin, is wonderful and the epitome of what public service should be. Responsive, caring, knowledgeable, works hard to preserve our beautiful countryside, and so on. My dealings with her have been superb--she really takes the time to address your issues, and she will be missed. Unfortunately, she's a Democrat who ran a rather quiet campaign, and he's a Republican with a more in-your-face personality who made himself stand out more. And we're in a very red area of a red county. I really wish Pennsylvania townships had some kind of official debate or forum where candidates for local office could be presented in person, and you could publicly ask the tricky questions, debunk the rumors, and get some sense of which person represents you best. Campaign literature (or lack thereof) and websites just don't do it for me.

Also, I wish there was some way to get on a Do Not Make Recorded Campaign Calls To My House list. You can't ask a recording to put you on the Do Not Call list, nor can you find out where they got your number and ask those people to delete it. They don't leave a contact number or name. It's a horrible, impersonal way to campaign, there seems to be zero regulation of it or means of preventing such calls, and I personally will not vote for those who robocall me. I don't like the live-human callers either, but at least they're real and you can ask them to cease and desist. Not that anyone uses them anymore. Grrrrr.