Not a long post today, just wanted to share with everyone that Kevin Smith has a new movie coming out, called “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. (Thank you Dan Trachtenberg, of the Totally Rad Show) Apparently Mr. Smith is jumping on the Seth Rogen moneytrain this time around, eschewing moneytrain has-been Ben Affleck in favor if a hot, new #1. I personally have *no* complaints, since I never understood what business Ben Affleck ever had in front of a camera when his obvious talents are behind it.

Anyway, here’s the trailer. Use the link if the embedded video doesn’t play. Friggin Hilarious.

Yeah, so last weekend I went out to visit my cousins Rinku and Apekshita out in D-town, mainly to celebrate Apekshita’s graduation from her Master’s program, but also (and secretly, mainly) to torture and corrupt my new little nephew (nephew? Dang these Indian styled generational naming conventions)… Surprisingly, Detroit was not burning (at that particular moment), though I did notice a fair share of north-side burned out carcasses, which I thought was pretty tragic, since many of those buildings seemed to have an ashy resemblance of late 19th century architecture.

I bet if Detroit ever turned itself around, those buildings would have (after restoration) fetched a pretty penny. Too bad D-town likes to burn itself. I suppose that’s better than having the whole city be sold for scrap to the Canadians, but on the other hand, it seems that random fire-setting would just speed up this process, especially given the strength of the Canadian dollar these days.

Anyway, what was once a wee bobble-headed muppet can now sit up in a couch, and can roll around on his own, thus spreading the products of his massive head-based drool factory over pretty much everything.

Witness the non-stop loads of baby-goo emanating from this kid’s face:




Yeah, he’s cute. Cute like a Golden Retriever. I’m really going to have to come up with a good pet name for this critter. Another year or so and I’ll be giving him wedgie-airplane spins around the apartment as I have done with so many tiny Singhs in the past. Very exciting.

Anyhow, we’re all hoping and wishing the best of luck to Apekshita in finding gainful employment, so my mom doesn’t have to keep sending Rinku sacks of sesame sticks from the Meijer Bulk store. Pretty soon they’ll both be yet another litter of Singhs that are reaping the rewards of good education and hard work. At that point I will design a house made PURELY of sesame sticks for Rinku, and all will be good with the world. Wow, I’m rambling…

Congratulations, Apekshita!!!

So today has flown by, trying to put together the last issues w/ Kalamazoo for Obama’s voter registration drive. Basically we’re offering (enticing) people to stop by with free hotdogs (maybe veggie dogs for our vegetarian friends?) to get them to register for the generals in November.

Here’s a link to map where this is taking place (Saturday, May 24 @ noon).

A few issues have come up:

1) Michigan’s ill-conceived choice to require voters to present a picture ID before being allowed to submit ballots. This of course makes it difficult for those who don’t have such IDs to vote (and, in my opinion, becomes a Constitutional rights issue). The ideas was, of course, sold to the public as a fairly xenophobic issue: that Michigan has some illegal aliens, and they’ll be (unlikely) be trying to vote in the generals. Of course, most illegals tend to try to fly under the radar as much as possible, and tend not to vote en masse. The problem with the decision was, as previously stated, that your legitimate Americans are going to find their right to vote infringed when they go to the ballot boxes.

Interestingly, those most affected tend to be the elderly and the poor – just those people who our state’s Republican state Congress wants to keep from voting in November. Ahh… the American political system…

2) Funding. It’s always an issue, and right now we’re in need of it for the purchase of… get this… clipboards, and pens. We have some volunteers going door to door to do some leafletting/campaigning/registration, and we haven’t enough school supplies :p

3) The silliest issue I could imagine, but so typical of grassroots political organizations – fracturing and fragmentation. Right now there’s an ongoing bit of bickering regarding whether someone should be allowed to create a “Kalamazoo County for Obama” group, in addition to the already well-developed Kalamazoo for Obama group. Childish, right? Well, it seems that one particular person who shall remain nameless has been making a stink because he wanted to make the K-zoo County group, which got shut down.

Part of Grass Roots organization is to keep groups “organized”, which means reducing faction and fracture as much as possible (which tend to happen *a lot* in grassroots movements, thereby heading nowhere, fast). Organization means that people can act decisively and cohesively together along a set path. Obviously if there are significant differences between groups, oftentimes those issues are what *make* them a group to begin with. To me, whether you happen to live in Kalamazoo County or Kalamazoo city-proper, isn’t really one of those times. Just because I live in Mattawan does that mean I should only join and identify myself with Mattawan for Obama (which I think exists, and has all of 5 people who are very inactive)? No, I’d rather join the larger, more active, more organized group that is Kalamazoo for Obama.

Granted, it’s ironic that *anyone* has say over a name or a group affiliation in a totally grassroots system, but there is practical reasoning regarding *why* fracturing a group could be bad, and I suppose those who run the groups aspect of the website recognize that. The fact is that the “grassroots” portion does not trump the “organization” portion of grassroots orgs.

…

On the bright side, one of my favorite bars, Bilbos just got wi-fi. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, but for now I’m seeing it as a totally awesome thing. Here’s to hopes that I don’t start drunkenly posting at 6pm!!