Come Home, McCain - The Washington Monthly and New Republic are right: McCain should run for president as a Democrat.

Interesting....

I just got out of jury duty, which is a big relief, since I came within one juror of being selected. (Here, potnetial jurors are questioned in groups, a process that stops when all 12 jurors plus one alternate have been selected.

It was actually kind of nice to not have to show up for work on deadline day. But it also means that I had only two stories in this weeks paper...

Researchers find 3,600-mile ant supercolony

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Woo-hoo! Off to the beach!

Study suggests how a pill could build muscles

I got really excited about this story until my girlfriend reminded me that "it's not a belly pill."

Darn, it looks like the Friday Five site is down today.

I know, I know. It's been a few days. I've been busy with another video project for church, which I needed to have ready to show today. I hope the folks in charge don't need any changes, because I was looking forward to spending Saturday in Santa Cruz at the beach.

In other news, our editor told us this morning that she'll be undergoing agressive cancer treatment. It sounds liek she'll be fine, but she'll lose her hair in the course of treatment, which must be weird. It was the first time I've ever seen one of my bosses cry.

Iran joins call for oil embargo

Yet another reason to push higher fuel standards.

Happy Easter, everyone!

My roommate got me a very sweet Easter card and a plastic egg filled with jelly beans and a certificate for Jamba Juice. Of course, this makes me look like a creep since I didn't get her or anyone else a thing for Easter.

Oh well, as she always says: "It's OK; you're a guy."

Here's a really cool group e-mail I got a few days ago from my friend Lisa. I never considered turning 30 a big deal, but I thought Lisa has some pretty insightful things to say here. And it reminded me how fortunate I am to have journalists as friends...

The big Three-Oh (No!)

....OR

Not going gently into the good night, czech style

This morning, March 26, I officially stopped clinging to the phrase “young adult;” ceased to be in that prized 18-29 demographic that gets all the cool test marketing gigs; and morphed into someone shifty, according to those even older folks who were alive in the 60s. (weren’t they the ones who said you should never trust anyone over 30?!)

So I’ve officially finished the first day of my fourth decade. Please send over-the-hill jokes, hair colorants and Depends undergarments. As well as the guide to how Early Bird specials work, and instructions on how to drive a mini-van. And DON'T remind me that at this age, Mozart only had five years of life left.

Actually, I haven’t really been fretting too much about this milestone, as it doesn’t feel that much different than 29. I certainly don’t *feel* as ancient as this age used to sound. Twenty-six, when you were officially closer to 30 than 20, smacked of much more calamity. Still, you just can’t escape the fact that no matter what, 30 comes with all this weird emotional baggage, no matter who you are, what you’re doing and what kind of lifestyle you’ve chosen. You’re supposed to have some things figured out by 30. I think we all do, to an extent, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s the right things…

I’ve decided all you can do is keep your sense of humor. A wonderful cousin who also recently turned 30 reminded me of this.

Was it brutal? I asked Jennifer of her passage to the no-longer-young side. “Puhleeze,” she says. “It’s so silly how people go around worrying about how old they are. Or saying they’re younger than they are. I go around saying I’m older than I am. I mean, for a 30-year-old, I look alright, but for a 37-year-old, I look hot!” (For the record, Jennifer looks pretty fabulous for a 30-year-old, too.)

Anyway, I do believe she’s right. It’s all how you choose to frame it. They say the 30s are supposed to be the decade when you come into your own. When you’ve established yourself; gone thru some trial and error to find your path, or at least a decent one. You’re supposed to have exchanged idealism for a more realistic picture of how the world works, and what you can accomplish in it. You’re finally considered wise enough to serve in Congress, and are even a desirable candidate to lead services on Jewish high holidays. (!) Apparently, one of the criteria in Jewish doctrine is to seek someone over 30, “because a 30-year-old has been humbled and broken-hearted, and can thus sincerely ‘pray from the heart.’"

Though I still like to believe I could do anything I wanted if I set my mind to it, it is true that, after my jading 20s (ha!), I’ve come to accept that some childhood dreams will probably never come to pass. They include: becoming president of the United States (yes, I realize this was a long shot, and that these few years out of the country has drastically torpedoed my chances!); dancing as a ballerina; and making an appearance on the Johnny Carson show as the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Ambassador (this one is actually in writing from the sixth grade!) I also probably will never figure out how to repopulate the wilds of China with panda bears, nor will I ever pull together that penguin pool for the backyard…(considering I’ve not yet *had* my own backyard…)

Speaking of backyards, there's these, I don't know, THINGS the world tells you you should be doing by now. Things like owning a single piece of furniture besides the papasan chair I recently sold; ascending some ladder some place; buying a house with the money from the ladder; and meeting a nice young man who will fix things in the house. (among other things...) And some nights, when I lose touch with my gut and my perspective -- like last night when I stayed up thinking about all this till 4 am -- I start to wonder if I’m off track.

But I was reminded by a wonderful friend in Prague today, that though life is short, it is also long, and there is plenty of time for such things if those of us exploring other options decide we *do* want to give them a try. And that we will appreciate them that much more -- they will be richer and sweeter -- for having taken this time to explore, seek adventures, and see what life looks like OFF the merry-go-round for a moment. Or maybe in building a whole different type of merry-go-round.

And anyway, there are still PLENTY dreams to tackle to in the next 30 years. I’m putting “weaseling my way into being the token white girl in a gospel choir” at the top of the list. I look forward to checking in with you at 60.

And being like a fine bottle of wine.

G’nite,

Lisa

Here's this week's Friday Five:

1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose?
Abraham Lincoln, still the greatest U.S. persident.

2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?
Not really, but one of the few famous people I was sad to see die was comedian Phil Hartman, one of the funiest and most industrious actors of the 1990s. He starred in one of the funiest shows ever, News Radio, and made frequent appearances on The Simpsons among others.

3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose?
Conan O'Brien. Talk about a dream job.

4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?
People have said Iook like Ethan Hawk and Jim Carey, which is odd since they don't even resemble each other.

5. Have you ever met anyone famous?
I once had dinner with a small group of people that included italian singer Andrea Bocelli, but he didn't seem too happy to see me. (Rimshot) I'll be in town all week, folks! Tell your friends about the show! Seriously, I really did have dinner with him.

Well here we are in Arizona. The fist night went well, and Andrea liked the Orange Blossom smell of Arizona spring.

It's here! Now I need to buy a wireless Ethernet bridge.

UPS Package Tracking
Status: In Transit
Scheduled Delivery: Mar 21, 2002
Shipped to: SAN JOSE, CA, US
Shipped or Billed on: Mar 18, 2002

That's right, folks. My ReplayTV should be here in a matter of minutes! I hope it's worth it. If I had known they were shipping it from Tempe, I would have just picked it up this weekend.

After nearly two years of banging my head against a wall, searching Microsoft's "knowledge base," scouring the newsgroups, upgrading twice and seriously contemplating deleting all my credit card account information and starting over, I've finally solved an extremely annoying problem with Microsoft Money.

The issue: despite setting my total monthly debt payments at a healthy, serious-about-paying-off-my-debt figure every month, my debt reduction planner was scheduling the minimum payments, which according to its own projections would extend the payments out through the year 2013, and then pay off the cards in one ridiculous lump-sum of $5,000 or so at the end. Obviously, the planner should have allocated my full intended monthly payment amount among the credit cards to pay the total off in a few years. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the stupid thing to work right, and just guessed the payments myself every month. This is not a good idea for English majors, by the way.

The solution: I deleted my Macy's account, which had been acting weird and showed a credit, though I had not updated activity with Money for months (it's an Enron-style off-budget account). Problem solved; it's allocating the monthly payment just fine now.

While I didn't actually work on the issue continuously, I did keep looking for a solution every few months for at least two years. Finally, I feel like I've accomplished something great, when I should have just switched home-banking applications. Microsoft should thank its lucky stars that I liked the automatic online banking features so much, or the company would be $20 poorer. And then where would it be?

Senate passes campaign finance measure

Wow, this is big. I can't believe it passed.

I just got off deadline and feel like I've just gotten over college finals or something. Writing all day can really wear a person out.

Here are the Monterey pictures!

Is the weekend over already? I visited Monterey for the first time on Saturday and saw the real Cannery Row made famous by the John Steinbeck novel of the same name. I suppose "real" is relative there, since it's a tourist attraction now and every other building is a Steinbeck memorial. But it was pretty cool. I'll post pictures later today.