Hillary

She's headed off to Michigan tomorrow morning. I'll follow her on Friday, but I already wish I was going with her. We'll have fun at Lake Leelanau.

Wanted

Awful. Just awful. The next time a homeless guy asks me for change, I'll give him $10. Just to remind me how bad a decision it was to buy a ticket for this piece of garbage.

Looks like Hillary's enjoying D.C.

Hillary's in DC

I miss her. She'll be back this weekend, though.

You may have noticed...

I've been running a lot of stories in the "Brad's Suggestions" section off to the right on the Zimbabwe situation. For those of you who don't know, Robert Mugabe, the long-standing dictator of Zimbabwe has plunged the country into a state of economic disaster through classic nepotism. He's the embodiment of the African strongman dictator stereotype.

Interestingly, Zimbabwe had elections some time ago, and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai*, surprisingly took first place. However, unlike (most) US elections, there are usually multiple candidates, and unless one of them wins a simple majority, there's a runoff election between the top two finishers. It was initially believed that Tsvangirai won enough votes to claim victory outright, but the Mugabe controlled government claimed that an outright victory did not occur.

This set the stage for the runoff election, which has been a sham since it started. Tsvangirai formally withdrew from the election today. The state controlled media has prohibited his party from running ads, arrested his party's second in command on treason charges (where he faces the death penalty), and Mugabe-supporting militias have been beating, killing, and displacing the opposition's supporters.

It is unclear how the situation will be resolved, but it's mind-boggling to me that this kind of stuff still goes on.

*Pictured above, after being beaten and tortured by Mugabe's government.

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control

Seriously? That's a headline for an an AP article? See the unnecessarily attention grabbing headline HERE. This is one peg down from a newspaper headline proclaiming, "We're all totally screwed" and two rungs from, "OMG! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" But when you look at the editor's picture, it kind of makes sense.

Ridiculous.

The article talks about all kinds of problems, such as higher food prices, midwestern floods, and natural disasters. As if these kinds of things are new. I think the Great Depression and both World Wars were much bigger deals than all the things the article complains about. And don't get me started on the Black Death in Europe.

CLE

I'm in a CLE. For those of you who don't know, that stands for
"continuing legal education". Basically, to keep my law license
current, I need to attend a certain number of "refresher courses". It
sucks.

Sent from my iPhone

He's got nothin' on this guy, though.

Old School.

DK Summit is awful

Hillary just took 1st Place. I took last. I hate this stage. This guy is apparently pretty good at it though.

I can't wait for Michigan

Super excited. See this to understand why.

Bullridin'

Hillary and I watched a bullriding competition in El Dorado last weekend. It was a new experience, and definitely outside my normal routine, but interesting. Although someone needs to teach the bulls how to wipe. Trust me.

My D300 did very well. It kept the shutter speeds high enough to freeze the action, even after the sun went down.

This guy reminds me of Tim McGraw, for some reason.

It's ridiculous how athletic these bulls are. And how crazy the riders are.

He is not amused.

You mess with the bull, etc.

And the hooves, apparently.

This guy is pulling off his Kevin Bacon in Footlose impersonation. With a bull. Yeah.

Those horns look like saber toothed tiger fangs. And although I wasn't around, I'm quite confident cavemen didn't compete on how long they could stay on the backs of saber toothed tigers.

This guy messed with the bull as well.

This bull weighs 1700 pounds. And he can beat my vertical leap, four times over.

Tyler, TX is surprisingly nice

Especially given its environmental disaster zone reputation.

Sent from my iPhone

WWDC '08

Here's what I want from Uncle Steve tomorrow:
1. Full Exchange compatibility and push email so I can ditch my
blackberry.
2. App Store up and running.
3. New Macbooks would be nice, but I probably wouldn't buy one anyway.
You can catch it on engadget. They usually have the best coverage.
My lunch hour will be entertaining.

Sent from my iPhone

Delayed

Stuck on the tarmac at Midway.

Sent from my iPhone

If only we looked so good in real life...

Done by a really nice lady at Navy Pier.