cupid max

My cat, Max, was in the V-day holiday spirit.

Giving Thanks for the Little Things

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought I'd list some things I'm thankful for. I'm not gonna bother with the obvious things (family, friends, health, etc.). I'd rather focus on the littler things that bring the little joys to my life (many of which are foods):

ice cream sandwiches, cheese, Gmail chat, Crisp & Juicy, The Onion, Twitter, dimsum, Gatorade, Honey Bunches of Oats, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Popeyes, U-Topia, Jameson's Irish Whiskey, Jack Daniels, Knob Creek, bacon, craigslist, perforated edges, high thread-count sheets, Moleskine notebooks, Pilot Precise pens, foosball, fantasy sports, Everton, the Redskins, Five Guys, costillas, Rafa Nadal, Zooey Deschanel, Fiona Apple, Daniel Day Lewis, Shure headphones, Apple, Microsoft, American Apparel, Converse, Ibuprofen, earplugs, text messaging, Slate magazine, the BBC, NPR, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Simon & Ed Burns, dance parties, Skype, electric toothbrushes, mayonnaise,  Old Bay, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Beau Biden, Banana Fana Fo Fiden, butter, Black Cat, Girl Scout Cookies, sunsets, clouds, Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce, Wikipedia, Klean Kanteens, Fatwallet, murses, hoodies, shoe horns, graffiti, Sharpies, Kurt Vonnegut, the National Park Service, Ikea, the Dude and Walter, sand, wind, rain, rocking chairs, Grandma Utz potato chips, YouTube, Hillary Clinton, onion rings, clementines, dark chocolate, Facebook, Bell's Oberon, Hunter S. Thompson, Mitch Hedberg, HBO, DVR, On Demand, Ledo pizza, Tastee Diner, mix tapes, fire, tennis, Kinder Buenos, Boggle, and rainbows

stuff that reminds me of my college days

Cannibal! The Musical


End of Ze World


Don Hertzfeldt


Wesley Willis


Gonads and Strife

Strong Bad Emails

Napster and Dispatch

Battlebots

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This video was sent to me months ago, but I never thought to put on here til now. It serves no real purpose but to put a smile on your face or a tear in your eye as you marvel at how such a simple act can bring people together in the furthest corners of the world. 

Come Together

This blogger Ze has a good idea. He figures, with the election finally over and the real task of fixing the ills of America ahead of us, it's time for red and blue to unite. So he started a project called "from 52 to 48 with love," where Obama voters can reach out to McCain voters with photographic gestures of reconciliation. I like it.

Living in the most liberal part of one of the most liberal states in the Union, I don't know very many Republicans. The few I do know are wonderful people who happen to have different opinions about what the country needs. In the heat of election season, it was easy for me to focus on the worst parts of the opponent party: the mega-rich corporate thieves, the bigots, and those who would use God's name to hurt people who mean them no harm. But looking around objectively, I can see that most of these so-called opponents want pretty much the same things I do: peace, prosperity, opportunity, fairness. 

After the unnecessarily long and agonizing election process has stirred up all this antagonism and division, it's important to remember what we're actually voting for: the leaders who will create the best situation for our country and our families. That can't be accomplished when half the country is moaning about how their choices would be doing a better job and the other half is laughing at them for not being able to do anything about it. No, that just won't do. The country and the world are in some very difficult and dangerous times, and there's no time for partisanship. I'm not saying to stifle dissent and disagreement. Without those, the fight is already lost. I'm saying we shouldn't let the differences that separated us over the last two years of election-mania keep us from working toward meaningful solutions. A few pictures won't can't fix much, but it's a start.