Just got done watching the EDL for the Phoenix lander. This part of Mars looks strikingly like southeastern Oregon, I must say. (Malhuer County Massive represent!!!) Anyhow, grats to JPL/UofA/NASA. Job well done. (If you're curious like I am, the Phoenix website is here.) Perhaps I'll turn some of the raw telemetry in to a new Micronaut song in honor of the event.)

Obama was in Portland today, and he drew 75,000 people. Not only was it the largest rally of his campaign so far, but it was the largest assemblage of people ever in Oregon. Period. I guess we do have a lot of not-hard-working latte drinking elites here. I'll note that all six black people that live in this state were probably in that crowd.

Elle and I were in PDX today as well, although not for this event. (We actually had hardly any idea it was occurring, and were wondering about the four Hillary people we saw holding signs up on Burnside, and how forlorn they looked. This here is 'Bama Country.) We went to the Oregon Symphony today to see Carmina Burana, which was fantastical good.

Our heat wave is over as well, it appears, so we can return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today, the salesman knew I was a marked man, as i asked to have a gander at the Nikkor 70-300 VR2 zoom for the second time. He just said "yeah, sure," and got out a polarizing filter and a bag to put it in. So, $600 lighter in the wallet, I drove home feeling guilty. That is, until I mated that bad boy to my camera body, and things were much, much closer.

Whee.

Tomorrow, we're gonna head up to Portland to catch the symphony, and probably spend some money we don't have, since I spent all the money I actually did have on a lens I don't particularly need.

When we found out this was gonna occur, I was actually pretty happy. I do like the hot weather, or what passes for such 'round these parts. However, going from 55 on Wednesday to 90 on Thursday to nearly a hundred today is a little abrupt for the human body to take with a great deal of grace.

Add to that the fact that the trees in our yard don't have their foliage yet, and you have a recipe for getting cooked.

And from the irony file, yesterday a couple folks here in Mill City died, technically speaking from the weather. If we were in Chicago and people started dropping in the heat, I'd be like "yeah, it happens." Here, it's a bit unusual. It turned out they didn't die from heat stroke. They died from hypothermia.

"But Chris," you say. "Weren't you just going on about how it was 90 yesterday?" Yup. I was. These people went swimming in the Santiam River, water temp of 38 degrees.

Elle and I schlepped over to central Idaho for the weekend to do the filial duties. As it turns out, extreme macro pictures of Idaho plants look just like extreme macro pictures of Oregon plants. Who would have guessed it? We stopped off in Hermiston on our way back to visit with the grandparents for a bit, and now we're home. All in all, not a terribly unpleasant trip at all. Nothing else to say, except that Ron Paul is quite popular in central Idaho. This comes as no real shock, since he's just the right kind of crazy for those Ruby Ridge motherfuckers.

I may have to revise that position, though.

This fucking gas tax holiday bullshit is so unbelievable as to completely defy any sort of logic by which human beings operate. While I'm of the opinion that any tax relief is A-OK (and more so now that I actually have an income that puts me in the "HOLY FUCKING SHIT" bracket when April 15th comes around) this one has got to be the Stupid of all Stupids.

Let me get this straight: the Big Plan is to have a 3-month holiday on the 18.5 cents a gallon federal gas tax, and in turn charge that to the oil companies as a windfall tax? Ummmmm... I don't suppose the oil companies will maybe, say, charge 18.5 cents a gallon more to cover that? Nah, they'll just pay that several billion dollars out of the kindness of their hearts.

This is the worst kind of political pandering, because it is so blatantly obvious, yet people still debate it as if it is a serious thing. Mrs. Clinton put forth a bill to do just such a holiday last week; it has no hope whatsoever of ever even coming to the senate floor for a vote, because Mr. Reid, at least in this matter, is a fucking adult. But the fact that she's campaigning on it, and using it to say that Obama doesn't have the welfare of the American people in his heart, is so ridiculous I don't even have words for it. It smacks of last-ditch effort, frankly, and just looks bad for everyone involved.

So, while Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama are actually fairly similar, and hew to the party platform pretty closely in all respects, I can't say that I can vote for Mrs. Clinton with a clear conscience any more, because this whole gas tax holiday proves what Elle has been saying all along: she's far more interested in hearing "Mrs. President" than having a democrat be in office.

Well, for what it's worth, no matter what the news might ponder, there's no fucking way she's gonna win Oregon.

Personally, I could give a shit about the stimulus. As was accurately pointed out several times in the thread, the government is essentially borrowing money from me at zero interest in order to give me a loan (which I don't have any choice about) that carries interest at prime. Frankly, any person with two brain cells to rub together would turn that down. But apparently, most Americans can't manage to get past the advertised "FREE MONEY, BITCHES! HOG HEAVEN!!!! THIS CHECK WILL BUY A FUCK OF A LOT OF BEER!!!!"

In any case, you'll note if you read the comments to the thread that there are at least 20 demonstrably correct answers to the original question that can be backed up by IRS-provided information, and they're all mutually exclusive. I have a passing interest in the subject because I was unable to pay the full amount I owe as well, so I'm mildly curious. I made more than enough to get the full amount for both Elle and I, but not enough to go over the limit. But frankly, either they send me a check for $1200 and I send it right back to 'em, or they take it out of what I owe them. It makes no difference whatsoever to me.

This stimulus package is trumped in its stupidity only by the concept of a gas tax holiday. My question is thus: have you got your stimulii yet? If so, what did you buy? Or did you do the smart thing and pay down some credit card debt or put it towards your mortgage, or the smartest of all: buy a CD? (And by "CD" I mean "certificate of deposit," not "that Jethro Tull album that has been missing from my collection...")

Got my LensBaby 3G today. What a fun lens, I have to say. It takes a little getting used to, and no TTL means I actually have to pay attention to ISO and exposure, which is a bit of a drag, but I think this is gonna shed new light (har har har) on my photography. Money well spent, IMO. Now all I need is a sunny day. That might be harder to come by this time of year.