Hello, readers! And welcome to my first post from the office. I don't anticipate doing too many of these, namely because writing blog entries on the clock really feels like slacking off to me, even though I'm not shirking any duties while doing so, as I stop typing to do my duties when the phone rings or someone needs me to help him/her with something in the office. Still, the interruptions are slightly annoying. Also, I dislike these computers. I know, for instance, that they must have better specs than ol' Sasquatch (my PII 400 mHz machine at the house, so named because the primary hard drive is a Quantum Bigfoot), and yet they still manage to run significantly more slowly than my longtime companion. I assume it has to do with the fact that they're continually accessing stuff from the network (apparently, many of the computers in this office don't have a lot of software loaded onto them and must constantly download files for temporary local use). Or maybe it's because they're Dells. I hate dells. I also hate this stupid ergonomic keyboard. Whose bright idea was this, anyway? The thing has a friggin' hump in the middle of it! I guess it wouldn't be a big deal if one used the proper fingering for typing, but alas, I do not. Please forgive any typos.

Anyway, after attending a free, advance screening of Shark Tale last night (as opposed to "Shark Tail", and on which I'll comment at length later) with my mom, we got back in time to catch the last hour of the Presidential debates. Far from finding them boring, they more than held my attention, and afterwards I felt pretty good about Kerry -- or at least better than I did. Before watching the debate, were I to vote for him, it would've been an anti-Bush vote, but having seen him more than hold his own against Bush (as many analysts have commented, Kerry certainly looked like a President, whereas Bush, by contrast, looked unprepared, foolish, and childish by comparison) I can now cast a slightly pro-Kerry vote. I expect the upcoming debates to make him even more attractive to me, given that (hopefully) they'll touch on issues I care more about than the Iraq sitch (though admittedly that's a huge issue). For my part, it's the stuff going on here that's my main concern. The abortion debate. Same-sex marriage. That sort of thing. And I'm already in agreement with Kerry and the Dems on these issues; all that's left is for Kerry to reiterate these his position when prompted and look good while doing it. Anyway, as far as I saw, I'd say that Kerry clearly came out the winner in this debate (though admittedly it wasn't a T.K.O.).

So it's interesting to read the analyst reports and how wildly they differ from one another. I was working for a couple of hours in the busy downstairs office this morning (as opposed to the quiet upstairs office where I usually am and am presently), and since I was in a position where anyone in the office could see what I was browsing online, instead of running the usual blog gauntlet I visited a ton of newspaper websites in search of differing views of the debate. And wow, I found them. Most of the people seemed to feel as I did -- that Kerry definitely carried the debate as far as delivery and style go, and came out slightly ahead with respect to the content of his answers -- but there were more than a few who hailed Bush as the clear winner of the debate and that his answers to the questions were rock solid. Also, the pro-Bush analyses seemed much more adamant and certain than the pro-Kerry viewpoints, which I also found interesting given Bush's theme of certainty. Maybe it's a Republican thing. (Whereas, for my part, I found Kerry's answer regarding the issue of certainty to be an excellent rejoinder, and one that I wish more people would take to heart instead of stubbornly holding to their positions even in the face of conflicting information and new insights.) I also noticed that papers in which more than one analyst submitted an opinion of the debate and one of them favored Bush, the others were more likely to favor Bush also. Interesting.

None of the commentaries had me chuckling quite as much as Jessi Kline's realtime blog entry on CNN, though. She's very funny, that one. 🙂

Aaaand I guess that's all I've got for now. Check back later for my week in review, where I'll report in depth about my first week at the new job, the books I've read in the last few days (two and a good chunk of a third), and the joys of working 'round the clock. Yeah, I'm out of here at 4 PM, whence I'll catch the bus and ride back to make it to my bookstore shift from 6 PM to 11:30 PM. And then I'm closing both nights this weekend, and then it's back to work bright and early Monday morning. I'm hardcore, baby. Hopefully I'll find time this weekend to work on some new content for Scary-Crayon, though.

Ja ne, minna-san!