Play Misty

Its a somewhat rainy day, and I'm not feeling particularly motivated.

I just got back from a trip out to the local offices of the voting organization. I had to pick up the materials for the election this Tuesday -- the documents, the flag, the VOTE HERE signs. Its always a bit chaotic there, as they have about 60 people showing up in about 90 minutes to get their stuff. This morning, they managed to have it be chaotic with only about 10 people picking up stuff. It didn't help that the people who have, literally, been tearing up the road outside of the building for about two years now are still at it. Their latest endeavor towards the cause of chaos: putting about 25 barriers up in front of the building's only entrances, so that you get to weave in and out to transit the area. It's so bad, coming out, in daylight, I couldn't tell where the lane was supposed to be. It's going to be a real freakin' joy, come Tuesday night.

I'm also not too motivated about French, at the moment. I think its because it has occurred to me that no matter how hard I work, I will not be fluent in the language come five weeks from now. Oh, I'll be able to make myself understood, but I won't be fluent. Even little things are really starting to irritate me, like when do you use 'a' and when do you use 'de', which I would have thought was obvious, but it turns out, not entirely. So part of me wants to stop even trying, which I know is silly.

I heard this morning that the United States is 'trying to manage the message' about the death of bin Laden. It's only a matter of time before the whackjobs start saying 'well, if he really wasn't armed when the SEALS showed up, they should have arrested him! Had a trial! With evidence!' Apparently, part of that 'management' is 'leaking information', such as telling Reuters that they found porn in the compound. I gather thats an attempt to diminish his image, which I don't get -- so, if you liked him, and thought his plans to kill lots of people were okay, you're going to change your mind because there was porn there? And then theres the 'well, we're not going to show people pictures of him, but we'll show these senators', one of whom then feels it necessary to give a graphic description of what he saw - the bullet went in here and came out there, his whole face was .... So this is going to help us? Maybe I'm simple, but I figure people who didn't like him will be some degree of pleased that he's dead, and those who did, won't. Why do we have to 'manage' this? (Of course, I have such a negative image of the Administration's ability to manage any message -- hello, health care! -- I just can't see them getting this right. Partially because true believers will believe no matter what, and others won't. )

I suspect that as I get older, my willingness to accept that others might be right -- more right than I -- weakens. So, bleh. Maybe I'll go find something to read.