Well, there's pride in every American heart...

No one knows how to kick you while you're like grad school. It's almost like its family. I mean, sure there is some mutual love in the relationship, but at the end of the day family just instinctually knows how to figuratively kick you in the groin (unlike Raider's defensive end Tyler Brayton who actually knee'ed Seahawk tight end Jerramy Stevens in the groin near the end of last night's Monday Night Football game). Although the lastest blow surprisingly doesn't have any fiscal element, I'm once again plagued with "I will never finish this sucker" thoughts. Man, and I was actually moving forward. I mean, I just found myself a thesis babysitter and everything! (Thanks again Cerebra!!) I guess I will just have to ignore this latest development like I do family and simply ignore it. (Speaking of family...apparently my mom volunteered our house for Christmas dinner...looks like I will be making mash potatoes by the pound this year!)

In other downer news, it's midterm election day. Since I vote absentee, I don't get one of those nifty stickers that identify you as someone who voted, but I would rather actually physically punch out my ballot chads. (I'm not sure about the whole 'electronic voting machine' development. I like knowing that out somewhere out there, in the physical plane, my ballot sits. It's just reassuring.) The other bummer about voting absentee is you don't get that election poll place rush. Hence why I will be tuning into The Daily Show's coverage of election night featuring Jon Stewart & co., Stephen Colbert, and Dan Rather. (Yes my friends...Dan Frakkin' Rather. How awesome is that?!?!?)

So here is some other weird but awesome news...I have a website tracker set up for this blog. I know it's kind of 'Big Brother', but it is interesting to see how people get to this blog (i.e. google searches, other blogs, or no refering link which means the blog is a favorite or they have memorized the address) and where they are currently setting up shop (i.e. Tucson, Manchester, Israel, Spain, Philippines, you get the idea...). I usually check once a week just for giggles. On a normal day, I may have 5-10 unique visits with 2 to 3 people staying for longer than 1 second. But I noticed that I tripled that average over the weekend. It turns out that someone on an O.C. message board recommended reading my review. So...weird... Flattering, but really weird...