So it seems Tivo has the wrong program guide for our area. I had to send in a report to have it addressed. I can't believe I am the only person with this problem. Hope it is remedied soon. I want my Tivo, dammit!

Yesterday, I overslept and woke with a nagging, mild headache and stiffness in my bad shoulder that never really went away. Spent some of the day finishing my rehab of G's old laptop. The rest of the day was just kind of foggy. Updated the blog, which took a while, with all the photos and such, digitized some more CDs.

Watched some of the Democratic National Convention and was tremendously impressed by Barack Obama's speech. He is a magnificent orator and the type of figure the African-American people in this country have so long needed. To find a comparable piece of oratory I would have to go back 20 years or so to Cuomo's speech at the convention -- that is no mean comparison. Obama's brightest moments came in the pacing of his speech -- gathering momentum as he expanded his analogies, using precise and powerful body language; here is a person who gives us hope that the Democratic Party can rise again. One of the PBS commentators said afterwards of Obama's speech (and to be honest, all of them were a little breathless as he left the stage), "that's why you go into this business: to hear a speech like that." Overall I have been impressed with the Democrats' approach, and contrary to some who think assailing Bush on his war on terror is a miscalculation (the Republicans are practically rubbing their hands with glee), I think it is a wise strategic move. Regardless of what the Democrats say, Bush's people are going to attack Kerry's worthiness as a President who can guide us through a war. Why not raise the issue now, throw the Republicans into a defensive posture on it, and hammer home relentlessly the view that our actions as a nation have only increased our enemies' determination, turned up the heat? Dick Cheney, speaking at nearby Camp Pendleton yesterday, perfectly expressed why the Republican/Conservative view is so wrong-headed when he said we need a president who will go after our enemies before they go after us -- in other words, unaplogetically emphasizing the pre-emptive, unilateral foreign policy of the Bush regime and the completely out-of-touch notion that by strength of arms alone we will lead the world. That's what Hitler though, Dck. Goddammit, why does nobody seem to realize that the United States could in all likelihood cure the world of terrorism if we focused something like 1% of the money we are spending on an unjust war in Iraq on stopping diseases, famine, and injustice?

And will the President ever learn to pronounce (among 100 other words) "terror?" Memo to George: it has two syllables -- "terr -- or," not just one ("we will stop terr and the terrists").

Anyway.

For supper G & I went down to the Farmer's Market; I had Singaporean (?) noodles and G had fried clams from Tusquella's. I cannot rhapsodize too much about the Market. It is truly one of the greatest places I have ever visited and to have it not five minutes away is a blessing.

Returned home with a small sack of chocolates and watched Jules and Jim, Truffaut's famous film. Still working my way through the school viewing list. It was very absorbing; I can see on the one hand how its moral ambiguities frustrated and even infuriated many critics of the time, but ultimately its message is that life is ambiguous. It takes some "reading" of the film to arrive at this conclusion, and a lot of folks don't have the time or the inclincation to ponder film, or art, or much else for that matter.

This morning, a little reading for school, and then we are off to Pink's for lunch -- every time we have gone there in the evening it has been a 45-minute wait but lunchtime is usually not too bad -- then to Universal Studios, five minutes from here, where I have an annual pass.