Brad Barrish

JE$U$!

If you are using any other browser, you're an idiot. Firefox rules.

Note: If you have trouble with the Mozilla site, here's a link to the 1.0 directory on their FTP site.

I don't think they are related (perhaps someone in-the-know can chime in), but two fairly new (and delicious) technologies have made my life a little easier as of late. del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It's somewhat difficult to explain, but essentially it keeps track of your bookmarks and displays information about who else bookmarks the same things, which you may or may not care about. You can tag each bookmark with keywords as you make them, which comes in really handy when you are looking for something. You can also share them with other people. I have so many bookmarks, that I had to do something different. Out of all the bookmarks I keep within Firefox, I only visit a handful of them on a regular basis. I don't see much of a reason to keep bookmarks the way that most web browsers do it, especially since I have so many. If I ever want to find something, it's really difficult. del.icio.us allows me to keep everything on a web site, which is accessible no matter where I am (assuming I have internet connectivity).

Delicious Library is a new program for Mac OS X. I had read about it a while ago, but this afternoon I saw reviews on O'Grady's PowerPage and Ars Technica. In short, the program allows you to catalog your music, movies, video games and books. You can use your iSight as a barcode scanner to scan the barcodes on the back of your favorite media. It pulls information from Amazon and allows you to fill in the blanks with you own information as well. In a matter of 10 minutes I decided to purchase the program and in about 40 minutes I had scanned in over 200 CDs. I have been wanting to catalog my CDs for a while, and it looks like I will be working on that.

Lisa posted some clips from The Daily Show's post-election coverage. As usual, good stuff.

While I’m glad the election is over, I’m crushed by the results. I’m scared of what four more years of Bush will do, not only to our tremendously divided country, but to the world. While I was watching the returns and chatting with Michael over IM, he said something to the effect of, ’this country will get what’s coming to it.’ It sounded like a threat and it sounded as if it was a bit hateful, but I see it from a different perspective now. I don’t think Americans really thought through exactly what it will mean to have Bush in office for another four years. And if I’m wrong, which I most certainly could be, then we are in a lot worse shape than I thought.

There is so much at stake over the next four years, especially now that the Republicans have even more more power in Congress. I suspect that lines will blur even more with regards to church and state, women’s rights will be trampled under foot, our nation’s debt will spin out of control and environmental policy will be virtually non-existent. All of this leaves me with a feeling of defeat. The thing that gets me the most is the reality that we live in a truly conservative country. The fact that “morality” played such a huge roll in people’s decision-making disgusts me, to say the least. Yet, what was probably the most disappointing aspect that came out of this process was the realization that Democrats have such a hard time uniting under a clear message. Kerry was weak in this area, and it reflected his party. Republicans came together, they had impressive voter turnout and they won.

When I went to bed last night, I hoped that I would not wake up to the news that Bush was re-elected, but I also promised myself that either way I would become more politically active. I will spend more time speaking out, fighting and working for what I believe in. I will cause change and I will have a positive impact.

In a last-ditch effort to educate the public about the election, the Intenets Veterans For Truth have launched a new pre-election campaign, “Never Forget.”

I never (and I mean never) watch local news broadcasts. Something got into me last night and I decided to turn it on. Actually, I just wanted to see the weather because it’s been raining in Los Angeles, which is a bit odd. Anyway, so they lead off with this story about some guy that was firing his gun in his Sherman Oaks home. They speak to some residents and… well, I thought the name Nazi was weird enough, but with a last name of Kohen, I have to think they made a spelling error. You tell me.

And just in case you’re wondering, I took this photo of my televison and there was no photoshopping involved.

I went to see Clinic last night at the Henry Fonda Theatre and walked out 40 minutes into the set. It was only a matter of a few songs before I decided I was going to duck out early, but I wanted to make sure I gave them a fair chance before I did so. I was so bored by them, it was painful. All I could think about was the fact that my legs were getting stiff just standing there. I was trying to pay attention, but watching the crowd was more interesting. At least they were a bit more animated.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen far less live music. More often than not I am so uninterested in seeing bands play live. I recently bought tickets to several shows in hopes of changing my own mind. Monday is Helmet at the Troubadour, which should be interesting. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I’ve been so busy reading all of the poitical email (and responding) that I haven’t really felt like posting much over the last week. Seems all that’s on my mind lately has been politics and I’m boring myself to tears with it. I want this coming Tuesday to be November 2. I’ve been getting pretty anxious about the outcome of the election. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve spent a few hours on the phone for MoveOn PAC. I’ve been phoning eligable voters in Arvada and Englewood, Colorado. A large portion of that time was spent getting wrong numbers, but when I finally did get someone on the other end of the phone, it was interesting. I spoke to a few undecided voters, some Bush supporters and quite a few Kerry supporters. Generally speaking, and I don’t think this is neccesarily representative of the country, people who were supporting Bush were less likely to talk about why. People who were voting for Kerry were much more engaging. I had a couple of 15+ minute conversations with Kerry supporters this afternoon. Now, to be fair, most people knew MoveOn PAC and it’s no secret who they support. But what I really found interesting was that of the people that stayed on the phone long enought to let me know why they were voting for Bush didn’t mention the war! They were more concerned with Bush’s morality and the issue of abortion. This surprised me quite a bit.

I’ve read several articles over the last week that dealt with Bush’s religious beliefs, his faith and how it plays into his politics. It’s terribly disturbing to me that he is so much more concerned about his conviction and consitancy than he is about the truth. He will not admit his mistakes, and that is probably one of the weakest characteristics he has. Part of the reason why he won’t admit them though is because he doesn’t see them. He is blinded by his faith and conviction.

I don’t think I could be much more convinced that John Kerry is our only hope for a better America. This election is so important to our future. Please, get out and vote on November 2. There are so many people who don’t plan on voting. Perhaps you know some of those people. Urge them to go to the polls!

A few hours after finishing the cover story in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Michael alerted me to a little blurb about Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire. I HAVE to get the video of this somehow. Please post leads in the comments. Leonard has the videos for the time being. You can also find links to the torrents on several sites.