Let's just call me lazy, forgive the break and move on

Oh yes, I'm alive and using this blog. Again. For... I don't know how long. Maybe today only, but we shall see.

First I shall prove my laziness goes beyond the large gap in posts. In that I shall copy and paste my thoughts on the State of the Union from something I wrote in a news community on facebook:

In terms of the speech, I thought it was well written, clear and appropriately somber. And on content I’ve got much more to say. I think what I found most irksome was Darfur got less time than Baby Eienstein in the speech. And the energy bit I found noteworthy mainly for Cheney’s reaction and the minimal Republican support in the applause and the simultaneous lack of Democrat support. He’s starting to get into the neighborhood of issues which need to be discussed but it seems like he’s so lost about them that he can’t think of ways to address them and he’s spent so long ignoring them he doesn’t have ideas for solutions that would be feasible. I especially didn’t like his opposition to the thought of raising taxes while simultaneously discussing the need to balance the budget. It was also a bit strange to see him talking about domestic issues as even in the pre-election debates dedicated to that, he always dodged into the war on terror defense. I think the actual discussion of domestic issues is a reflection of how poorly things are going in Iraq more than anything he said addressing the war. The vouchers he tried to slide in ruined an otherwise positive response on the importance of education. An odd thing coming from him, was the defensive tone when listing plots foiled. The other positive sign was the lack of the fight alone tone and the actual mention of plans to work with the UN, EU, Russia etc... Although I found it weird he did not actually mention either Pakistan or India. Given both our military and NATO’s need of Pakistan, I would expect that alliance to be recognized with other’s we’re working with. The lack of recognition of India given recent deals on sharing nuclear technology also struck me as weird. Especially because India has been working more with Russia in recent weeks and we need to make sure we maintain that alliance as it has been valuable and has the potential to become even more so. And despite eluding to relations with Mexico, he didn’t even dedicate a full sentence to nations in the western hemisphere. And the only direct mention was of continuing to support democratic movements within Cuba. On the promising side he mentioned climate change finally even though he couldn’t use the term global warming. Questionable action plan, but at start at least. The other thing I found interesting was in the response clips on NBC, Clinton got asked what democrats think and went with the party position before plugging her own visits to the troops in Iraq. Meanwhile Obama was mainly asked to analyze the leadership and the writing. Much more polished yet without the full substance.

Did you actually read that? If so give yourself a pat on the back, give me a comment and then eat a cookie.

In other recent news the holiday season never dies at Starbucks. As soon as New Year’s past we immediately rolled out the Valentine’s Day merchandise and started promoting the need for chocolate, flirt mugs and more. New Barista bears etc.. The works. If you’re in need of a cheesy romance themed gift- see your local starbucks and go berserk- if you’re single like me and you don’t want it rubbed in your face: avoid coffee.

If you want more regular updates you should check my two photoblogs as they’re both updated semi-frequently although not yet daily .