why does bush need both mccain and obama at the roundtable discussing the proposed financial bailout? i mean, who's the president here? can't bush do the job that half of america elected him to do? it's like he's saying, "hey, i know i'm the president for another 4 months and this is technically my job, but why don't you two presidential wannabes come over to my house and solve my problem for me?" mccain of course is already there, trying to rub some of that congressional problem-solving mojo on himself to stop his poll numbers from slipping any further. just look at that photo: mccain and bush grinning like idiots while the economy goes down in flames, while obama is dead serious, realizing the full gravity of what's happening to the country.

when i heard mccain was suspending his campaign yesterday, i did a doubletake. is he calling it quits? but suspending his campaign just means he won't personally campaign himself, but his commercials will still run, and his surrogates will still go on the airwaves on his behalf. i agree with those who argue why can't mccain multitask more than one thing at a time. he's all about gimmicks. first selecting palin as his VP, and now this campaign suspension stunt. i really hope the debate will happen tomorrow. or not, then obama can monopolize all that airtime. either way obama comes out on top.

and has anyone else seen that katie couric palin interview? it makes me want to scream. palin is not fit to be the vice president, let alone the president. the fact that she pads her answers with extra words to stall for more time or to sound more intelligent, it's absolutely cringeworthy. can we really risk another incompetent executive in the white house? say what you will about obama - that he's an elitist, that he's sexist, that he's a closet muslim - but the man is smart! no offense to dumb people, but i don't think they should be in charge of the nuclear launch codes.

i also love how letterman is bashing mccain now, ever since mccain cancelled his late night appearance yesterday. i love leno, but his jokes are stupid, especially how he tries to keep it fair and balance by going after both mccain and obama. well, not the case with letterman, at least not since wednesday night. he's not necessarily pro-obama as he is anti-mccain. it's like he doesn't care anymore, the gloves are off, and hopefully mccain will be the butt of letterman's jokes for the foreseeable future. i may start watching late night again - for the monologues no less.

today was errand day. all the things i didn't have time to do over the past two weeks because i'm been pulling 14-16 hours worth of coding, i could finally do them today. i wasn't happy when client B wrote me an e-mail this morning, saying, "you know all those other bug fixes? why don't you just go ahead and do them while we're waiting for feedback from the client. we're also going to send you some more bugs." so much for a free day. but i wrote them back, told them what i've been through the past 2 weeks, and i wasn't going to fix anything this week unless it actually crashed the program. then i went about my day.

i called blue cross to inquire about some extra co-payment charges. i thought follow-up appointments were free, but apparently they charge me $25 per visit, regardless of the situation. i got in touch with two contractors to try and arrange appointments for them to come by and give me an estimate on the gutter and roof repair work that needs to be done before winter. i brought some more stuff down into the basement. i renewed some library books. i returned that tiny rug i bought from pier 1 imports. i paid my cook's illustrated subscription online. wrote out checks to my health insurance as well as my portion of the water bill to my upstairs neighbor. and i went over to julie's place to fix her wireless router. for some reason the wifi wasn't working anymore on her linksys. i reset the box, which seemed to do the trick. i also installed a USB 2.0 card into her mac (i think it was a christmas present i gave her from last year).

my father dropped by in the afternoon with another lunch delivery. i don't think i've made lunch all week. my roommate came home later, heated up a lasagna slice for lunch, and then went back to the office without taking a nap. i did some work, for client N, and also for ungrateful client B as well, felt a bit guilty after i essentially threaten them with work stoppage. looks like rain tomorrow so it'll be a good day to stay at home and just work.

i had a slice of lasagna for dinner. when my roommate came back, he did the same. he took a shower, which i wonder now if that's actually his second shower since arriving at my place a week ago. maybe he takes them in the morning when i'm still sleeping, but the bathtub seems awfully dry. anyway, i told him about collectible state quarters. we compared passports. and then we talked about one of the things that's been on my mind, the treatment of ethnic minorities in china. he said k. have a good relationship with regular han chinese because k. have their own country (k-land). a minority group like the uyghurs, who have no country to call their own, are more about separatism. elsewhere, a group like the tibetans, one could argue that han chinese are actually foreign imperial invaders, so any unrest on their part has more to do with fighting colonialism. he talked about corruption within the government, and how news is heavily censored. he basically told me all the things you wonder if the chinese know about their government but were just too afraid to say anything. he did say if any of the things he told me he was to say back at home, there would be repercussions, so maybe i should be careful as to what i say online, so as not to get anyone thrown in jail.