The Fourth Presidential Debate

Bush's 2-minute closing statement in the fourth Presidential debate.

Via Xian

Ten Years Ago

It's unbelievable that George W. Bush debated like this when he was running for governor. What happened to him over the years?

Link via BoingBoing

Update
The Boing Boing link now points to their original post on this story and here is the production information on it too.

Clientcopias

After reading nearly 700 clientcopia quotes via Zanah, it's clear that an introductory manual of some sort needs to be written for people who work with web designers. Most of the stupid quotes were made by clients who had no idea about computers, the Internet, or web design, yet needed a website for their business. Inept clients hurt both the clients' businesses as well as the web designers, who sacrifice their time and energy. Somebody needs to write "What Businesses Need to Know about Web Design," or something similar because it seems like a lot of people don't have a clue.

A couple hundred silly quotes doesn't mean that every client isn't knowledgeable about these things, but there are loads of people who are new to creating websites and working with a designer. People believe that the designer is responsible for everything on the site and little is required from them.

I've outlined a few basic rules that people should know about web design. It's not complete, especially since I'm not a professional myself...

• The Internet has limits and the designer is aware of them. If the designer says you can't have a 50-minute DVD quality video that takes up 10 megabytes on your site, then that's the truth. Trust the designer.
• Words like fun, edgy, creative, corporate, loud, dynamic, etc don't mean anything, so using them to describe the site you want won't help the designer. Get specific.
• You have to tell the designer what you want and don't want. If you say, "I'll know what I want when I see it," then you'll get exactly what you don't want.
• If the designer says that changing a few colors, moving images, and adding text won't be easy to do, then that's right, it's not.
• Read the contract you have with your designer, the one you signed. They usually work for money, so non-payment equals no work done.
• If you want something done and the designer does it, but you're not happy with the results, it's not the designer's fault.
• A white background with yellow text is illegible and the designer will tell you this. When something will look bad the designer will let you know, so trust him/her.
• It's helpful to know some computer terminology, like operating system, browser, web address, etc. Both parties should speak the same language.
• You provide the content, not the designer.
• The designer waits for your approval. Keep in contact with the designer (reply to emails, voice mails, etc).

This is an incomplete list obviously, but I think I've covered many of the basics. Either the clients learn how to work with professional designers, or professional designers learn how to deal with incompetent clients while in design and art school.

Rapper Turned Terrorist

Is the FBI, Secret Service, or Department of Homeland Security onto this one? Rapper KRS-One is suffering from severe confusion because the WTC didn't keep blacks out of the buildings, 9/11 affected everybody in the country, and voting doesn't make society more corrupt. Can't he just date a movie star or singer like all the other rappers?

Comparing Their Resumes

John Kerry "job application."

George W. Bush "resume."

Half-hearted attempts at attacking a candidate can provoke the opposite of the desired response if fallen into the wrong hands...

Low Temper Control

In Friday's Presidential debate Bush has some trouble keeping his temper under control, frequently grimacing while Kerry was speaking. One particular outburst stood out which involved interrupting the moderator and barking at the crowd. This was one of the more exciting parts of the debate, but had Kerry acted the same way the Bush camp would've jumped on it immediately. The expectations for Bush are so low, that as long as he doesn't fall off his chair or doze off he'll be fine.

Bush's Small Business

In tonight's debate Kerry charged that Bush counted as a small business owner because he received $84 from a timber company. Bush claimed ignorance of this, but it turns out it's true. Factcheck.org has an article saying that he did get paid $84 from a timber-growing company counting him as a small business owner (Google Cache article).

Update:
Factcheck.org wasn't working properly when I found the article, so I had to use the Google cache article. The real article is here with a correction that they made on October 9, the day after I posted. It says that Bush does own the timber company, but the $84 came from an oil company. Either way, he would still count as a small business owner under his definition of what a small business is.

Snl Resources

I don't watch Saturday Night Live, but I heard a rumor that Ben Affleck, last week's host, was a half-way decent actor so I tuned in half-way through the show. The sketches I saw were okay, but not good enough for me to watch the show ever again. There was one that caught my attention since the words Bourne Supremacy were uttered by Ben during a Tina Fey news desk segment. What was that sketch? Where do I read the transcript? Some googling led me to Snl Transcripts, but it wasn't there. Today I found a great collection of Snl links called Snl Headquarters and in it a site dedicated to Weekend Update, the Tina Fey sketch. They happened to have the entire transcript of Ben poking fun a Matt Damon, in addition to a video sparing me from hunting down a full episode torrent.

Yay, the Internet does something wonderful yet again. Why can't we have the Internet run our country?

Racial Profiling During WWII

Last month I wrote about Senator Zell Miller challenging Chris Matthews to a duel. During the interview Miller referred to a previous interview involving Matthews talking over a woman saying John Kerry shot himself. I didn't pay much attention to this because I assumed that Matthews always did that. Yesterday, while idly surfing I found a blog post about a book written by Michelle Malkin called "In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror." After some more searching I found this high quality interview with Michelle Malkin.

So Malkin was the woman Miller was talking about. I immediately requested her book from the library and am eager to read her arguments. Malkin also keeps a blog and is an active writer on other sites.

Filling Out College Applications

Last week I finished filling out two college applications the day before the deadline. I'm hoping to transfer to a new college for the spring semester, so I'm going to fill out (at least) two more applications before the beginning of next month. Some require more time than others and I tried picking schools that didn't require essays or recommendations (lazy) since I waited to the last minute to do this.

I filled both applications out online. I had to sign up for an account for each college, which I loathe, but there were only a few hours before the deadline. It turned out to be easier than expected and I was relieved afterwards. The next application I'll fill out online too, but not the last one.

I'm not smart or well-connected enough to go to an Ivy League school and California and New York city are out, but I'm determined to have a good time wherever I do go.