will like this clock as much as the left liked the Obama clock Fox News Sunday was running?

Like it? Get it from MoveOn.org.

Alas, it doesn’t love me. Specifically, my aging eyes. I’ve now put two and two together, and realized that the minor nausea I’ve been experiencing the last week is unrelated to the extra glass of chardonnay and instead, is related to the amount of iPhone use.

Bummer.

I’ve been using the BlackBerry for years with minimal problem (and with the default font size). Alas, the microscopic font size (not adjustable on most apps) on the iPhone is readable, but apparently at a cost.

Since I am loving the iPhone, it looks like reading glasses *will* be required. Sigh.

I got in a few snarks/tweets on Friday re the Sarah Palin pick. But I’ve also read/heard from people I respect who are either convinced this is a brilliant move on McCain’s part or very concerned that it is.

I have nothing to say to those who would equate Palin’s experience and Obama’s (except gee, can I get some of what you’re on?). But I thought this op-ed by Michael Kinsley in today’s WaPo nailed the fundamental issue (emphasis mine):

That’s why the important point about Palin’s lack of experience isn’t about Palin. It’s about McCain. And the question is not how his choice of Palin might complicate his ability to use the “experience” issue or whether he will have to drop experience as an issue. It’s not about the proper role of experience as an issue. It’s not about experience at all.

It’s about honesty. The question should be whether McCain — and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama’s dangerous lack of foreign policy experience — ever meant a word of it. And the answer is apparently not.

Many conservative pundits woke up this morning fully prepared to harp on Obama’s alleged lack of experience for months more. Now they face the choice of either executing a Communist-style U-turn (”Experience? Feh! Who needs it?”) or trying to keep a straight face while touting the importance of having been mayor of a town of 9,000 if you later find yourself president of a nation of 300 million.

Me? I’m cautiously optimistic that this pick, like Harriot Miers, will fall apart under the weight of increased scrutiny.

Update: Here’s an interesting Palin perspective from HuffPo:

… the McCain campaign is at a major disadvantage in any wonky policy debate on fixing the economy. Knowing this, and knowing that the election is going to be won or lost on whether their ticket is regarded as the best equipped to meet that challenge, the McCain campaign is doing what the GOP always does when it has to fight for working class voters in a debate that Republicans can’t win on its merits: they are reverting to symbolic politics, a role for which Palin is tailor-made. … [The GOP is] going to turn any question about Palin’s ‘experience,’ whether from a Dem or from a journalist, into another elitist attack on working class culture, another example of snooty, brainiac liberals condescending to ordinary Americans. And to boot, a bunch of good old boys picking on Mrs. Mom.

Given how rash it seems the decision was re Palin, I suspect this may fall into the “even a blind squirrel finds a nut” category rather than a well thought out plan. But it seems a good explanation for the unease a lot of Dems have with the Palin pick.

Update 2: And George Lakoff has more to add on the issue of symbolism and framing:

[T]he Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call “issues,” but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind — the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can’t win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse. …

What is at stake in this election are our ideals and our view of the future, as well as current realities. The Palin choice brings both front and center. Democrats, being Democrats, will mostly talk about the realities nonstop without paying attention to the dimensions of values and symbolism. Democrats, in addition, need to call an extremist an extremist: to shine a light on the shared anti-democratic ideology of McCain and Palin, the same ideology shared by Bush and Cheney. They share values antithetical to our democracy. That needs to be said loud and clear, if not by the Obama campaign itself, then by the rest of us who share democratic American values.

What Lakoff said!

iPhone test, originally uploaded by idblog.

First photo w/ the new toy.

Lunchtime Wii, originally uploaded by idblog.

We didn’t get to go to Denver, so we’re having some lunchtime fun in out new conference room!

From I Can Has Cheezburger?

The fine folks at someecards.com have a great selection of cards for “when you care enough to hit send.”

There are tons of other options with sentiments like this:

Our athletic failures on an international stage will be a welcome break from our diplomatic failures on an international stage.

and this:

When I was your age, we had to dial to get online.

and this:

Sorry you chose academic reputation over legendary partying.

(That last one takes me back.) Hat tip Crooks and Liars.

Moonrise, originally uploaded by idblog.

If John Edwards did something illegal (i.e., funnel campaign funds to his mistress), he deserves to be called on it. But in the meantime, I agree with Jane Smiley on HuffPo, who thinks that if we’re going to consider Edwards’ adultery, we also need to consider John McCain’s.

But going out and getting stupidly laid and then coming home and reconciling with the wife is not the same as going out, getting stupidly laid, then divorcing the crippled wife and marrying the pretty young thing (and taking out your marriage license before the divorce is final).

Lucky for McCain that the Enquirer wasn’t as dogged with Vicki Iseman as they were with Rielle Hunter?

Dinner fun, originally uploaded by idblog.

Love the onion volcano at the japanese steakhouse!

Good morning sunshine, originally uploaded by idblog.

The Blackberry doesn’t do this justice, but was at hand.

After the storm, originally uploaded by idblog.

Not sure if the double rainbow shows up in this BlackBerry pic, but it’s there.

I have taken to searching Twitter when I’m interested in something timely. So after a recent tweet about how I wasn’t exactly taken with Ted Allen’s new show on FoodTV, I searched to see what others were saying.

A lot of it echo’d my sentiments: this FoodTV/MythBusters show needs a bit more to live up to its origins. But then I came across this tweet and just laughed out loud:

Ted Allen is like if Bill Nye and Alton Brown had a beautiful gay baby

Spot on! (I’m a fan of all three.)

Alas, Food Detectives is a bit like the baby you want to love but are wondering how it got that strange misshapen head.

Hope to see things improve in the future!

Obama has a pretty good day:

:

But I had to appreciate how design played a role in this trip. From Meaningful Distraction, we get this tribute to the Obama team’s attention to detail:

They note the nod to the Bauhaus tradition, which was very important in the early part of the 1900s, and why it was useful here:

As I’ve noted elsewhere, Obama’s design team is very, very good — they would know the history of German graphic design. Obama’s Berlin poster contains the same bold, diagonal lines and sanserif type which typifies 1920s -era German “industrial design.” … Many Germans will recognize this little tip-of-the-hat, and those that recognize it will appreciate it.

Not quite the butterfly ballot, but still a case of design and politics intersecting.

Cool clouds, originally uploaded by idblog.

I caught these clouds out my sunroof on the drive home yesterday and wondered how the BlackBerry would do in terms of the detail.

First, thanks Twitter friend, this made me laugh:

I just realized I wasn’t following you on twitter and missed some messages from you. I’M NOT A JERK :)

Second, why is it that my favorite Queer Eye guy (Kyan) is the only one without a show? But looking forward to Ted Allen’s new show Food Detectives.

Speaking of which, who knew there was a Slashfood?!

Third, I almost feel bad for McCain. Just watch him dodge the question of whether it’s unfair that insurance covers Viagra but not birth control. Ouch!

Fourth, I need to get out of the habit of channel surfing if I wake up in the middle of the night. Or else get rid of HBO. I wound up watching The Constant Gardener from about 2-4A. Paying for it now!

Not Friday but…, originally uploaded by idblog.

I was setting up the BlackBerry for Twitter and had to snap a pic. Love the face!

My New York trip was clearly an outlier … I have not really gotten used to the idea that I am carrying a new BlackBerry that enables me to moblog. And even when I remember I’m carrying it, I haven’t yet decided the ethics of using a work device (even though it comes with an unlimited data plan) for non-work activities (New York was really “educational”).

Anyways, because it didn’t occur to me, you were spared the details of my unplanned trip to the DMV this AM. Why uplanned? Because had the stars aligned, I would have renewed my drivers license online and been spared the pain that is a trip to the DMV.

As I said on Twitter, this is largely my fault. There were two ways I could have spared myself the two hours (plus half hour waiting time) this morning.

First, at some point over the last several years, I should have corrected the address the DMV has for me. Why didn’t I sooner? The only thing that had changed was the apartment number. Even the folks at my precinct weren’t sticklers for that, so I put it off.

Second, all I had to do was put a reminder in my Outlook for sometime in June. But I didn’t, thinking that I’d get the renewal in the mail.

Well, maybe I might have had I fixed my stupid address. But I’m guessing that the DMV has an explicit “do not forward” on their mail, and the USPS was not gonna bend the rules. So since the backup plan wasn’t in place, I managed to let my license expire on the 30th of June.

There was some good news to this. First, VA’s DMV does not require you to retake the written or driving tests unless your license has been expired for a year. Second, while a lapsed license means you have to provide proof of “legal presence” I had my birth certificate handy.

But my trip was still a bit fraught with peril. Again, I didn’t help myself. In my quest to be in and out quickly, I didn’t read the stupid renewal form closely, and put my name on the form as FIRST LAST instead of LAST FIRST. Scratching out things on the form is not permitted, so I had to go back and redo it. Oh eff.

The other bummer is that it doesn’t matter how good your proof of “legal presence” is (I had my birth certificate, the woman behind me had a passport), they actually take the time to verify it as a legal document. Tack on another 15 minutes or so for that fun step.

Only after this do they route you to the end of the room where you get to have your pic retaken and then wait for the plastic license.

Anyways, the moral of all of this may be that I am too old to learn how to avoid procrastination. But I did add an Outlook reminder for the car registration renewal later this year.

Rainbow over DC, originally uploaded by idblog.

I wasn’t going to post this, but then I saw that both Mike and Gina posted their rainbow pics and wanted to make it a trifecta!

FDR Library, originally uploaded by idblog.

My knee wasn’t up to the quarter-mile walk to FDR’s house (Springwood), so I made due tooling around the supporting buildings, including this, the FDR Library, which (according to them) is the first of the presidential libraries.

Culinary Institute of America, originally uploaded by idblog.

The wide angle of the BB curve camera made this shot hard to get, but this is downhill from the main building and terrace at CIA in Hyde Park. Their campus is amazing. And when you add in the restaurants you can sample, this is a great stop if you’re touristing this way.

Inn on the Falls, originally uploaded by idblog.

The back terrace of the B&B I stayed at last nite. The room is far more modest than at the Tarrytown House, tho the rates are similar. (Resending for the bazillionth time.)

Vassar, originally uploaded by idblog.

I think this is a dorm building. Nice campus tho.