Well, by the transitive property, anyway. Before Obama announced Biden was his choice for VP, one of the names kicked around was Governor Tim Caine of Virginia (who, before that, was mayor of Richmond). And of that possibility, Rove said this:

With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?

Replace some names and a few pronouns and he’s talking about Palin, isn’t he? Holy crap I hope someone finds a public way of using this.

I bought Guitar Hero over the weekend. I’m not that great at it—”easy” is just below my ability, and “medium” is slightly above, so I’m pretty much never gonna see the game on any level that I feel like I’ve mastered it.

Still, whatever, it’s kind of fun. I always liked the guitar in Sunshine Of Your Love, so I looked forward to that. A couple songs like Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Welcome To The Jungle are a lot more fun to play than they are to listen to. I am surprised to find I like more straight rock than I’d thought.

However, odd thing happened while I was going through Easy mode and got down to One by Metallica. I had like an emotional reaction to it—or hm, no, that’s how I described it at the time, but it’s not quite right. I had maybe a pride reaction. Or honor? Anyway, it just felt wrong to play it on easy. It deserved more. I just cancelled it mid-song and picked a different one.

I was having a difficult time with “medium”, and you have to get through a number of songs before you can get down to the part where One is available to you. But I bludgeoned my way through it just so I could get down to One again and put some effort into it that it deserves.

I don’t even like Metallica all that much. I am fascinated by this reaction in myself, and as self-analysis is my lifelong hobby, I expect to mull this over a fair bit.

I got drawn into a Microsoft ad for The “Mojave Experiment”. Basically it goes like this: they ask (supposedly non-actor) people what they think about Vista, and they generally get the response oh it sucks, all my friends say it sucks, I haven’t really used it yet but it sucks. Then the interviewers say, okay, we got this new operating system we’re working on, Mojave. Have a look, what do you think?

They do, and wow they are floored. Hey this is just what I need, when can I buy it, this does everything I ever hoped and dreamed and more. And then — whoahey fooledja! This isn’t “Mojave” at all, it’s Vista! OMG no way I’m telling all my friends!

Aside from the fact, as Debb pointed out, that the problems with Vista wouldn’t be immediately apparent — yes, it’s a pretty interface, and if you have a knowledgeable tech guy walking you through a gloss of the fancier features, of course it looks wonderful — I am just entertained by the baseline start of this campaign. “Okay, people hate us. We know it. you know it. But hey let’s trick you into thinking we’re good anyway!”