Halloween

I always liked Halloween as a kid. Next to Christmas, it was my second favorite holiday (although it's not officially a holiday.) This year will be the kids first Halloween here in America. They don't celebrate Halloween in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese people have asked me about the meaning behind this holiday. To them it seemed pretty strange.

Having moved to the night shift at work recently, I'll be working this Halloween night, unfortunately. Although, had I been home, I'm not sure the kids are ready for trick-or-treating yet. Kyle can barely walk, and Sara is is still extremely shy around everyone except for me and my wife. I doubt she would want to walk up to peoples doors and yell "trick or treat." I'd end up having to do everything for her. I think next year she'll be ready. 4 years old seems like a good age to start.

So this year we'll just be carving pumpkins and watching scary movies. I like to play John Carpenter's "Halloween" this time of year. It's probably the best, and most classic of all the "Halloween" themed horror movies. It relies more on tension and suspense than gore and simple shocks. If you've never seen it, rent it, but avoid the 2007 remake by Rob Zombie. I was really disappointed with it. Although I liked Rob Zombie's previous films (House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects), his style just doesn't work here. His remake isn't scary in the slightest.

Halloween brings back a lot of memories for me when I was a kid. My friend David (the one in Taiwan) and I used to dress up and go to the local park in Downey (Apollo Park). We use to scarf down on the free hot dogs that they would give away on Halloween, and then we would enter the costume contest. On separate years we each won first place in the costume contest. David won when he dressed up like Admiral Ackbar from "Return of the Jedi," although he called his costume "A Spokesman for the Reagan-Bush Campaign." I won the following year, dressed as a bag of McDonalds french fries. After that, we would go back to my moms house and annoy her with Halloween pranks. David would ring the doorbell, wait until my mom gave him some candy, leave, and then go back again to try to get more candy. My mom, not knowing that it was David, would start to get irritated and say "You've already been here several times! No more candy for you!"

Yes, those were fun times.

(Picture: Sara, Kyle and the Halloween pumpkin)

Voting Shenanigans

I've been wondering why I haven't received a sample ballot at my apartment here in Texas. Now I've figured out why.

I am not registered to vote.

After logging into a couple of Texas government websites, I have found out that they have no voter registration info on me. It's a bit strange, because I did re-register when I first moved here. When I changed my address, the US post office sent me a packet, which included a small yellow card to update your voter information. I guess for some reason, that card never reached its destination.

Could this be an example of voter suppression by the Republicans? Who knows. Probably not, but you never know. It's kind of pointless to suppress the democratic voters in Texas. Obama will lose by a landslide in this state. Texas hasn't voted for a democratic president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. My only purpose for voting was to add to the popular vote for Obama.

I believe Obama is going to win this election, and it won't even be that close. November 4th is going to be a huge victory for the Democratic party. Not just for the president, but for the Senate seats as well. Under a government that is completely controlled by democrats, we may actually see change. I know that frightens the hell out of some people, but change is really what we need in this country right now.

McCain, of course, is saying that he "guarantees" victory on Tuesday. Does he know something we don't? At this point, the chances of him winning are next to none, unless the Republicans have some new tricks (or old ones) up their sleeves again. They'd have to have the manpower to rig the vote in all the battleground states that Obama is leading in, and right now that's quite a few.

As for me, I'll just sit back and watch as the numbers come in, and hope that everyone and everything that I would have voted for succeed. After that, I'm going to go down to a local government office and register to vote....again....for next time.

The (Famous) People of Austin

I ran into Austin pseudo-celebrity Harry Knowles the other day at Best Buy. I was with my daughter Sara at the time, looking for the blu-ray version of one of her favorite movies, "Ratatouille" (which they didn't have, by the way.) Knowles was also browsing the blu-ray movies, already carrying a handful. He was in a wheelchair, which I assumed was because of his weight problem, and his wife was with him. I didn't talk to him, as there wasn't really anything I wanted to say, and I didn't think he wanted to help me find Sara's movie, anyway. :)

Harry Knowles, for those of you out there who don't know, is a well-know movie critic who runs the website http://www.aintitcool.com/. When a new movie comes out, I tend to read the reviews on his website before I go to see it. I also read Roger Ebert's website as well. If they are both in agreement that a movie is trash, I probably won't see it. What's different about Knowles website, though, is that he will publish reviews for movies that aren't even out yet. Many of his readers are movie-industry spies who often get into advance screenings of movies, so you'll sometimes get reviews months in advance of the movie actually coming out.

I already knew that Knowles lived in Austin, so I decided to do a search of who else lives here, either former or current residents, and this is what I found:

Harry Anderson: the guy from the old TV show "Night Court"
Wes Anderson: film director
Lance Armstrong
Sandra Bullock
George W. Bush (Austin can feel real proud of this former resident....'snicker')
Walter Cronkite
Farah Fawcett
Ethan Hawke
Tobe Hooper: film director
Lyndon B. Johnson
Janis Joplin
Terrence Malick : film director
Willie Nelson
Dennis Quaid
Robert Rodriguez : film director
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Owen Wilson
Renee Zellweger

Some of the names seemed obvious (Willie Nelson, Tobe Hooper), but I was surprised by some of the others. Austin isn't Hollywood, that's for sure, but there are some pretty big-name celebs here. I think the only one from that list that I'd like to meet, though, would be Willie Nelson.

(Pictures: Current and former residents of Austin -Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Dennis Quaid, Willie Nelson, Harry Knowles, and Dubya)

Why I Became a Democrat

I don't normally like to talk politics on my blog, but since it's getting close to the election, I figure why not. If I happen to have any conservative Republican readers out there (although that's not very likely), I've probably lost them by now. hahaha

I haven't always been a democrat. During the mid 80's, I figured I would be following in the footsteps of my conservative Republican father. He had me convinced that all the democrats want to do is raise taxes and let the government control everything. He boasted that the only democrat he ever voted for was John F. Kennedy. However, when George Bush Sr. was up for re-election in 1992, my father, shockingly, voted for Clinton. He couldn't stand Bush, and I remember he used to complain about the amount of time that Bush spent at Camp David. As I have stated before, once hardcore conservatives are voting for the Democrats, you're party is in trouble. I see that trend happening again with McCain. My family, who are mostly all Republicans, are voting for Obama this year.

When I was a teenager I used to watch this conservative talk show host named Wally George. I thought he was hilarious. I loved that show so much that I even went to a taping of it once out in Orange County, California. I don't really know why I liked it or even if I agreed with his politics, I just liked all the weirdos he had on the show. It was like Jerry Springer before Jerry Springer was even on the air. Now when I think about his show, I feel quite different. I think Wally was a bit of a doofus, and he always put himself in a position where he would be right and his guest would be wrong. One example of this was when he had a guest on who was very well-informed and educated, and had brought notes to help back up his arguments.

"You can't have notes on this show!" Wally yelled at him, and he proceeded to take the guys notes and rip them up. Whenever the guy had a fact to back up what he was saying, and Wally didn't have a rebuttal, he would just say "Well I think you're a liberal jerk!" and then he'd bang his hand on the table, and the audience would applaud. Very unprofessional.

It wasn't until around 1990-91 when I was in college that I turned to the democrats. I was talking to my friend David (the one who lives in Taiwan) at the time, and he started asking me questions about why I was a Republican. After I answered, he said "You should be a democrat. Just about everything you said is what the democrats believe."

So what did he ask me? Just basic questions like "Do you believe in trickle up economics or trickle down? I believe in trickle up. Meaning that the poorest people should get the most tax breaks and the richest people the least.
"Do you think gays should be allowed to get married?" Yes, of course I do. I think that gay people should have all the legal rights that everyone else does. I also think this country should have a public healthcare system. Having lived in countries that have public healthcare and don't have it, I can tell you for a fact that public healthcare is better. What's the number one cause of bankruptcies in America? Medical bills! This one is a no-brainer for me.

David also asked me about gun control, and I believe in very strict gun control. Again, having lived in a country without guns, and one with guns, I do feel a lot safer to walk the streets at night in Taiwan than I do here in my own country. I also believe in a womans right to choose, I think more government money should be spent protecting the environment, and I don't think prayer should be allowed in public schools.

So I probably sound like a bleeding heart liberal, right? Not exactly, I still believe in the death penalty for people who commit murder, and I don't support affirmative action. I think everyone should be treated equally, no matter what gender or race. If two people are applying for the same job, and one person is more qualified than the other, that person should have the job. I also don't think amnesty should be granted for illegal aliens. My wife, a legal alien, feels the same way. It's not really fair for those people who go through all the time and expense to get here legally.

The Republican party, at least in my opinion, just seems to represent the interests of the elitist, wealthy minority. They don't believe in equal rights for everyone, and they don't seem to care much about the environment. They claim to cherish life and are against abortion, but they support the death penalty for juveniles and retarded people. The Democrats seem to be on the side of the average, middle class person, which is what the majority of Americans are. I know there is good and bad on every side, and if any Republican out there wants to rebuke anything I've said, feel free to write and I'll publish your response.

For anyone reading this who would like to take a brief quiz on whether they are Republican or Democrat, I recommend this website:

http://www.selectsmart.com/plus/select.php?url=americanpolitic

I took the quiz, just to see if anything might have changed, and I'm still a democrat. :)

President Palin? I Don't Think So.

I've recently been seeing television ads for Barack Obama here in Texas. I was a bit surprised.

"Why is Obama wasting his money on advertisements in Texas? Is there doubt in anyones mind that he isn't going to win Texas?" I asked my wife.

My wife, who is Taiwanese and not even eligible to vote yet, agreed with me. We both think that Obama is the better candidate, and that VP nominee seems totally out of her league.

I saw the debate between her and Joe Biden. While she didn't seem as stupid as she did during her interviews with Katie Couric, I could tell that her answers were all pre-programmed from her "debate training camp" in Arizona. She had memorized all the words she was supposed to speak, but didn't understand the meaning behind them.

I really wonder what John McCain was thinking when he chose this woman as his running mate. I'm guessing he chose her to appeal to the Hillary Clinton supporters who don't like Obama. Here's another woman for you disillusioned Clinton supporters who don't want to vote for Obama!

If this was McCain's intention, he must really think that American women are idiots and are easily fooled. Clinton and Palin are about as different as two people can possibly be.

During the interviews with Katie Couric, Palin didn't know what the "Bush Doctrine" was, nor could she name a single Supreme Court case other than "Roe V. Wade." No big deal, right? Well, just because the average American can't answer these questions doesn't mean that the candidates who want the highest job in the country shouldn't be able to.

One thing that really bothered me about Palin was when she made the remark that she represents the "Average Joe Sixpack." This is ridiculous. We want our leaders to be better than the "Average Joe Sixpack." Much better. The President and the VP represent the entire country. We have a president right now that represents the "Average Joe Sixpack" and look where it's got us. Our candidates need to be the most intelligent and experienced people that we can get. These are the people that are going to be making life and death decisions for all of us.

Some may say "It's no big deal. It's only the vice president job. They don't really do anything anyway." This is true...BUT...this election is different. The VP for Obama and for McCain have to be seriously taken into consideration. McCain is a 72 year old man with health problems. Obama would be the first black president in a country that still has homicidal racists. It's very possible that either one of these VP's could be president during the first term. Can you imagine this country being run by Sarah Palin, the hockey mom from Alaska? It's a scary thought.