Elections

Watching the Iraqi elections is fun. Although I am not sure how they can vote when their ballots are just filled with a bunch of squiggles and dots.

I disagree with the assessment that the Shi'ites will win and the Kurds and Sunnis will lose.

The press seems to be confusing demographic groups with political parties. It is far more likely that the nation will end up developing multiparty systems split along something other than ethic and religious lines.

The first elections will probably involve the issues of which regions dominate more than subsequent elections.

In the long run, however, most politics is local. In a healthy system, people in a community will be split over local issues. The Shi'ite majority will be split over issues that immediately affect their towns and villages. The parties that prevail in Shi'ite land will be those that are adept at bridging the gap between the Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions.

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [...] declared war on the election, vowing to kill any "infidel" who voted."

My heart goes out to those who braved their piers and voted. I welcome all of the Iraqis who voted to the international brotherhood of infidels. Us infidels are good company.

Anyway, I've been spending the day making horrible puns about Iraq and Iran, and spouting my belief that most people will get with the new Democratic ideals Sunni or later.

(Well, okay, maybe not all infidels are good company...some spend their day sitting around making bad puns.)

More on Locations

I will be spending the rest of the day writing up descriptions for locations. The biggest challenge I have is figuring out what to do with shared locations. For example, The Great Salt Lake is a location that is of interest to Tooele, Ogden and Salt Lake. It is not of interest to other communities like Moab.

I will probably end up having to break out the location into a complex join. It might be nice to have events for a shared location to show up in all of the calendars interested in the location. However, it is possible that an event taking place in the Wasatch Mountains near Heber is not of interest to people in Ogden.

As for paying for the site. My "if you build it they will come" attitude hasn't worked yet. So, I decided that I need to design programs with a goal. So, my goal is that I will display the location page 200,000 times a year. I made a summary page with a hit counter to track progress.

Calendar Locations

In an attempt to improve the visibility of the events that people add to my community sites, I decided to expand the descriptions of the locations. I am starting with the Salt Lake's Venues Page. Having write ups on the major venues in the Salt Lake Valley might increase traffic to the site. We will see.

After the DNS errors that my site suffered last week, I've had a 40% drop in traffic. Grumble, grumble. I was making a little over $30 a day from the sites before the DNS troubles. I hope the traffic is not gone forever.

Everything is Breaking

Everything seems to be breaking. DNS problems have been causing my web sites to disappear. The head of my Panasonic electric razor broke. The mouse on my computer flips out on a regular basis.

Even the puppy is broken!!!! Poor little Coco has developed a limp from running too fast. The doggie doctor said that we shouldn't take Coco on a walk for a week to let her paw heal. A whole weak without a walk!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is going insane.

I ordered a new razor head. The part cost as much as new razor. I had been hoping that the internet would make thinks like ordering replacement parts easier. It took a great deal of searching for a place carrying parts. The replacement head for my $40 razor cost $41.

I ordered a new mouse from Overstock. The mouse Overstock sent was broken out of the box!!!! I've heard other complaints about the Big O sending out broken parts. Judging from the packaging, the mouse has been shipped and returned mulitple times. I suspect that several others didn't like this particular mouse...because it is broken.

After I go through the hassles of returning the broken mouse, they will probably just send it off to another schmuck...until they finally find someone to busy to return it.

Skeleton Man

I just finished reading the new Hillerman, Skeleton Man. The Amazon Reviewers really panned the story giving it just 3 stars. I actually found the work to be quite enjoyable.

This new work brought us into the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon where the Havasupai people live. To solve the mystery, we must first uncover the hidden treasure of the Masaw (Skeleton Man).

Just the mere fact that this story brought us into the deep gorges of the Grand Canyon made this work a delight. This is a thumbnail gallery of Pictures from the Grand Canyon. The confluence of the Little Colorado and the Grand Canyon really is a magical place.

If you like it; Preserve it!

My personal beliefs fall more in line with the statement "If you like it; Preserve it!"

It seems to me that the ultimate goal in life is to leave the earth in better condition than we found it. This process starts by learning what is unique and wonderful about the earth and preserving as much of that as possible.

Only after we draw the lines of preservation should we start thinking of improvements.

Craig's List

Looks like Craig's list has expanded to Salt Lake. In just a few months they've dwarfed the user base of Salt Lake Sites.

It is funny reading through Utah related web boards. About one out of every ten posts contain a version of the phrase "If you don't like it; Leave!"

So, to partake in the craigs list phenomena, I decided to post a rant about the phrase. Hmmm, I wonder if people will recognize that it is a parody.

If you don't like it....

Apparently Craig's List only keeps things for 45 days. So, I also post it here:

I would like to nominate the phrase "if you don't like it; MOVE!" as the Utah State Motto.

I've found it to be one of the most commonly used sentences in the Utahn phrase book. I see it has already appeared in several messages on this board.

The phrase seems to come up in just about every conversation regardless of whether our not the topic is negative or positive about the state. It is most often used in the sentence:

"If you don't want to convert to my religion; MOVE!"

There a whole army of cheap white shirt, cheap drab pants, cheap tie clad, strange underwear clad young men on bicycles dedicated to knocking on people's doors, then telling them various versions of "if you don't like it move."

Generally the person saying the phrase is substantially more negative about life than the person being beating over the head with it.

The variation of the phrase that I like to use is: "Utah is an incredibly beautiful state with wildlands that deserve protection. If you don't like it; MOVE!"

Think about it. Utah politicians will drone on for hours about how Delaware is a better place to live because Delaware has almost no public lands. Well, if the Grand County Commission prefers Delaware to arguably the most beautiful scenery on earth, why don't they pack up their ugly fat arses and move?

It seems strange that the large culture that hates the natural beauty of this state keep telling the people who love the natural beauty of Utah to leave. Why don't they leave?

Public lands and wild lands and scenery are pretty much the only thing this little state has going for it. I like the land in Utah and have learned to ignore the people and have retained some sanity.

The phrase is thrown at me so often, I can't help but want to start using my version of it something...hence this post.

BTW: If you don't think this should be the state motto. MOVE!!!!!

If you are new to the area: Welcome to Salt Lake...Now, go away.

Happy New Year

Happy New Years!

(To be politically correct, I apologize to all indigenous cultures that I am oppressing by forcing my concept of the western calendar on their unwitting souls. I also apologize for saying the word soul which itself is yet another attempt to oppress indigenous cultures by forcing the Judeo/Christian concepts on their culture.)

Now then, lets see if I am ready for New Years. I have a bag of tositos chips, a bowl of tosito brand salsa. I have a couple of Polygamous Porter beers in the fridge (You can't drink just one, you know). Wait a second, I need to wear something red. Somebody, give me something red!!!! No, spilling Tostito brand salsa on my shirt does not count.

Okay, now it looks like I am ready for the corporate branded Tosito Fiesta Bowl which should start sometime around 6:30 pm.

Again Happy New Year...with my apologies for my oppressive presumption that happiness is the goal of life.