first off, let me say that although i'd rather gore be the next president, i did not vote for him (there are good reasons, one of those being my state was locked in for bush), so let's not jump to conclusions of me being insanely biased just yet. here's the thing that has bugged me about bush since the day after the election, his smugness. his cocky attitude of entitlement. that gore is/was trying to steal the election, when he was in fact contesting the election. which is legal mind you. the way he's made remarks and comments about how he is the next president, as if it was over long ago. [and if his retarded little laugh and rat-like appearance (he also makes me think of a used-car salesman, seriously,) don't tip you off, nothing will.] the fact that the bush camp called last night's u.s. supreme court ruling a total victory. allow me to explain my boggled state. a five to four decision by the supreme court that basically says the only reason we can't do a recount is because there are time constraints. (i'll come back to this.) and in which one of the dissenting justices literally says that 'we will probably never know who won the election.' and by making this decision, bush will be the next president by an electoral vote of 271-267, resting solely on the back of the state his brother is governor of. (i say solely because if he didn't get florida it would be 292-246, an obviously larger margin, though also not near a landslide or anything.) and even if he did indeed win the state, it would be by, at most, a few hundred votes. and of course, more people voted for gore than him in the nation..

however, i will concede the fact that under the electoral college system, and the current decisions of the courts, he is going to be the next president. he'd just better do a damn good job, because his re-election is already in serious jeopardy, as i see it.

regarding the u.s. supreme court decision, i think they dropped the ball. it's plainly obvious that i am no legal scholar, nor even a legal student. but i think their comments that there is no time to do a recount are nothing short of irresponsible. i mean, i understand the judicial system cannot make law (as written in the constitution), but they have had little problems overturning laws in the past with broad sweeping decisions. and i would have to think, with my slight legal understanding, that both the voting rights act of 1965, and the due process clause (perhaps among others), would carry some weight. i'm honestly not expecting, nor am i wanting, the court to declare gore the winner. i would just like to see the final recount numbers. that's all.

something new. as far as i am concerned, my obligations to myself and my university, in regards to the fall semester of this year, are officially complete. finished my last exam this morning, and boy-howdy do i feel good. mind you a lot of that has to do with by flight plans tomorrow morning, but nevertheless, i'm very happy to be done.

i wish i could play tennis today. but as anyone living north of miami knows, it�s freezing outside. (that and the whole shoulder thing. though its good, i'm just supposed to lay off some stuff for a bit longer. and as i'd really not like to re-break it, i'll do just that.)

a certain baseball player recently signed a contract for 252M dollars over the next ten years. (ahem, the M = million, and not moroccan, monopoly, or macedonian. in this case at least.) and while i'm not keen on that fact, then again i'm not a baseball fan so i don't care all that much, i realize that athletes getting paid literally insane amounts of money to play a sport for their career is a fact of life. what bothered me more than the figures, was the fact that he said, "..it's not about the money.." sure, he may love the sport to death, maybe that's all he does every day is play baseball, whether for his team or just for fun at home or a video game or dream about it or make a casserole in the shape of a stadium, whatever. but it is about the money. anytime two hundred and fifty-two million dollars is involved, unless your name is william h. gates iii, it is about the money. if it wasn't, you wouldn't need to have that much to play. if it wasn't, you wouldn't sign contracts for that much, you'd let your club keep some of the money so they could get other good players, so your team could be a contender in that game you proclaim to love so much that it makes you forget a quarter of a billion dollars. while i'd love to get paid a lot to do what i love, at a certain point, i would just give the rest away. and that point is nowhere near twenty-five million per year, let me tell you.

i'm all over the place today. i recently made a new mix cd, mainly for my upcoming time in an aircraft, and while driving to my exam yesterday morning, the song 'all i want is you' by U2 came on. and it made me remember the december of my junior year of high school. i was out with my girlfriend shopping for various people, and she asked me what i wanted. honestly i couldn't say, i'm so bad at thinking of what i want for christmas. i honestly like to give stuff more. [now don't misunderstand, i like getting stuff whenever, just not specifically during the late december holiday season.] and i couldn't come up with anything, and kept telling her that there was nothing i really wanted. and for some reason we got in a slight argument about it. and we weren't talking on the way to her house. so i swung by my house and got a mix tape of mine, and on the way to her house i put on that song. and i didn't say anything, because the message was clear, i mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out from the title/lyrics. and she didn't say anything, for whatever reason, i thought at the time it was still because of the argument (which it very well may have been.) so we get to her house and get out of the car and are headed to her door, and i'm thinking of what can i do now to get my point across as well as apologize profusely, because it doesn't seem as though i got my point across. so we get to her door, she unlocks it and opens it and takes the one step up into the doorway.. stops for a second. turns around, and with wet cheeks and tears still running, puts her arms around me and kisses me. it was a great kiss, and a great moment. i remember the rest of the day was great, and i thought of something small and she ended up getting me something else that was unexpected and great, but i don't remember what it was we did, or what it was she got me. but those moments in the doorway, made my heart ache, and my eyes wet, and my body warm on tuesday morning.

i think memories of past relationships are a good thing (for various reasons), but that it usually takes some time before your perspective is such that you can appreciate it so much. for me anyway. [i'm slow.]

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