Jon Stewart Saves My Sanity

I am an NPR junkie. More years ago than I am comfortable sharing, I completely gave up on popular music radio. This was in the dark ages when your only alternative to radio was a cassette tape. As someone trying to become an adult type member of society, I gravitated to NPR on my commute. Sometimes this is a bad thing. During the 2008 elections, starting in 2006, I often ended up at school in an irate, Americans-Are-Too-Stupid-And-Idiocracy-Is-Happening-Now mood. My eighth graders did nothing to dispel this mood.
But one thing did.
The Daily Show.
It is the Prozac that tips my scales back into a slightly optimistic balance. It makes me realize that there are millions of like minded people out there laughing at the nuts in the world. Laughing at them is much better than being scared to death of them.
If I stay up for the first airing of a Daily Show episode, I usually end up listening to just a part of it from the bathroom. We all have our schedules. So this entry is just to give you a little idea of where I stand on politics.
I am one of those left leaning centrists that always has shit to do that Jon Stewart is always talking about. Hence, I will be watching the Rally to Restore Sanity on TV instead of being there.
I think the way I see the heath care issues in our country is a good example of where I usually fall.
I have no problem paying more taxes for an institute that will be a trade off for another bill like health insurance, especially if it means that there is health care coverage for everyone. This is how most of the first an second world countries do things. However, I do not feel that the partisan bureaucracy that is our current federal government is capable of running such a system efficiently. Though I know that the insurance companies and medical conglomerates are doing a terrible job, so I'm willing to give someone new a chance.
And I think when the only way you can turn people off of an idea is to make them afraid of it instead of using legitimate arguments, it's a better-than-average idea.

Technology Woes

Social networking is one of those things that most of us use but about which we all make fun. Because the home button on my iPhone died, I have learned that Facebook and Twitter are rather more important to me than I at one time thought.
See without a working home button, I have to shut the phone on and off to go between apps. This now makes me think really hard about what I need to do on my phone. Is it really worth going through the shutdown and startup cycle? So I really just leave it on the phone or text messaging because after all those are suppose to be its main functions, you know necessary communication with family and friends and doctor's offices. And because if I sit down with my laptop my son decides he needs to not only push the buttons but also to pull them off and eat them, I am not on Facebook and Twitter as much as I was. (They were my main bathroom distraction. After all, I can hold my phone out of my son's reach and still use it.) And I miss them. I always thought that it wouldn't be a big deal to give them up if I wanted. They were frivolous distractions.
I was wrong.
I did not realize how much I depended on them for a connection to the outside world. Don't get me wrong, I am pretty proud of how much I manage to get out of the house with two kids under a year, but still I am home with two people who can't talk a lot. I try not to have the TV on too much. Facebook and Twitter are a good way to keep the need for adult conversation at bay without going back to work and paying for daycare. Plus, I can have conversations online that are not about my kids. When I go out of the house in the real world, most of my time and talk are still devoted my kids. Not online. I can talk about them if I want, but there are lots of other topics floating around out there. Like boobs.
So I miss you guys out there.
Anyone want to send me an iPhone 4?