Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
statewide
Tuesday, February 27. 2007
Updated: So much for *THAT* idea....
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
politics
Wednesday, February 14. 2007
So over at the local fishwrap-of-record, they plugged an event coming up this weekend featuring a popular former football player; what they NEGLECTED to mention was that the event is a Republican fund-raiser. Whether or not this was intentional, the end result is that people may wind up purchasing seats who were initially unaware of that, and thus inadvertently supporting a cause they don't subscribe to.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
statewide
Sunday, February 4. 2007
This is a short-form of what I was trying to write this morning. As I attempted
to post then, this is likely the most controversial thing I may ever blog, since it, at least in the short-term, would likely disadvantage national Democrats.
If you're not faint-of-heart, read on after the jump....
Continue reading "Nip/Tuck Abridged"
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
about
Sunday, February 4. 2007
I just finished writing a post that was about 4000 words in length, and when I went to hit "Save" I was auto-logged-out. I have no backup copy of the text either (which I normally would -- I tend to cut/paste such things to/from a text-editor while I'm working). I am *massively* frustrated right now.
Yes, this was the piece I had been formulating that I mentioned briefly in a comment on RSR, about voter-shifting closer to home.... I'm so embarrassed/disgusted/frustrated.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
demographics
Sunday, February 4. 2007
Something I'd been meaning to do for a while: Compile some meaningful-looking population projections for Idaho for 2010.
How do I define meaningful-looking? Well, in particular I was interested in County-by-County numbers that would total to match the Census Bureau's statewide projection for 2010, and had some basis in real research. So, I give you a list of 2010 County population projections that is the weighted average of datasets produced by "real economists" and is consistent with what the Census Bureau projects as our statewide population in 2010: 1,517,291.
The detailed table is after the jump...
Continue reading "First, Some Data to Work With"
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
highered
Tuesday, January 30. 2007
Needless to say, there's been a great deal of musing about JuCo building in the Boise area of late. Much has been made of BSU's proposal to turn the BSU West campus in Nampa into one. However, that still leaves Boise itself underserved. There has been some "discussion-lite" about a site near Micron (maybe even using some of Micron's own buildings nearest Highway 21, if they see their way clear), but that still leaves West Boise/The Bench/HP underserved.
On the other hand, there have been two geographic problems plaguing Capital High since I went there twenty years ago: It's too close (for a predominantly-commercial area like the Central Bench, at least) to Borah, and it's WAAAY too close to the District boundary -- there are kids a quarter-mile from Capital who live in the Meridian district. What Capital DOES have going for it are impressive facilities (nice auditorium, huge gym, planetarium) and copious real estate. It occurred to me this morning -- a serious potential win-win would be the conversion of Capital High into a JuCo campus; both geographically and architecturally, it's probably already better-suited for this anyway. I'd love to hear some thoughts on this idea.....
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
people
Saturday, January 27. 2007
So the Statesman *finally* got around to mentioning Dr. Dickinson's disappearance in yesterday's edition -- peripherally in the context of the opening of his favorite play in Moscow. Intriguing that the story required them to present all of the major details of the disappearance -- since they had yet to publish any of them over the ensuing three weeks -- but managed to omit most of the usual details of a theatre opening (in fact, they barely managed to work in the title of the play!).
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
politics
Monday, January 22. 2007
I've already had a Republican relative receive the email that is the subject of this piece on Snopes, and start asking questions about it. I figured it was still too icy for Swift-Boaters....
Snopes Article on Obama Chain Email
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
people
Friday, January 19. 2007
I've been lamenting the decline in the quality of the Statesman since the McClatchy acquisition, but this has got to be the worst example ever: Dr. John Dickinson, the sitting Moscow City Council President and retired longtime Chair of the U of I Computer Science Department, has been missing (following a presumed fall into the John Day River in Oregon) for a week and a half, and the story hasn't even received a *word* of coverage from "Idaho's #1 Website for News and Information." This is a person that literally *thousands* of people here in the Valley, and countless more throughout the state, know personally. Obviously, my heart goes out to his family and friends, many of whom I knew from my days in Moscow, and I certainly hope for his miraculous safe return, but that this story would receive so little coverage from the Statesman that I would only learn of it through an Alumni email newsletter is appalling and disturbing.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
food
Friday, January 19. 2007
Ok, Since I wrote the last couple pieces about sushi, I have to admit to having had a couple of wonderful sushi lunches, on weekdays (most recently yesterday), at Fujiyama on Milwaukee. Not Downtown, not a weekend, certainly not Nobu, but still -- good sushi.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
politics
Wednesday, January 10. 2007
I'm posting this to open up some room for thoughts... as many of you know, I once (in the prior iteration of this site) ran a post on Dog Chromatography -- that is, Democratic "dog" colors -- that got some attention. However, now, I feel compelled to discuss some differences among Democrats that are more particular and substantive... because I feel particularly distanced by certain types of political philosophies *within* the Party, which of course makes it much harder to pin-down what I am. So, let's start by what I'm not:
- A Blue Dog like Fritz Hollings
- A New Democrat like Evan Bayh
- An Environmental Democrat like Al Gore
- A Progressive like Dennis Kucinich
- A Conservative Democrat like Joe Lieberman
- A Traditional Democrat like Richard Gephardt
- A Liberal Democrat like Maxine Waters
- A Yellow Dog like Ann Richards
I'm sure there's more; this list is far-from-canonical. Hopefully, I can make this into a meaningful voyage of self-discovery....
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
politics
Tuesday, January 9. 2007
Ok... well the first one is obvious: It sold out!.
The second one is entirely personal: I have other plans that night.
The third one is I've already seen the movie; which is quite good, BTW.
Oh, and the fourth one... that I'm one of those Democrats people often refer to when they say, "Some Democrats in this state still blame Al Gore for our statewide failures here since he became Vice-President." It's hard to be the party of working families, when you allow people with radical environmental agendas to steer the party onto a course that negatively impacts the livelihoods of families whose primary wage-earners are in natural resources industries, in a state where so many people are engaged in the harvesting of natural resources.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
about
Tuesday, January 2. 2007
Ok, so one of my New Year's resolutions is to write more.... I'm going to make a concerted effort. It might help to have some cross-pollenation, so I'm going to look for some feedback in the comments: any interest in me making this a group blog, that is, volunteers to help keep the content flowing?
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
food
Friday, November 10. 2006
Turns out, the same thing applies if you happen to be looking for sushi for a late-afternoon lunch on a Saturday. The only sushi place I found (and granted, this time I only tried the three that are within a block of 8th and Idaho) open for lunch on Saturday (Koi) closes at 2:30 and later reopens for dinner.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
food
Tuesday, September 26. 2006
One recent Sunday, I found myself with both the urge and the opportunity to seek out sushi for lunch. So, I headed into Downtown Boise, figuring I would get to try one of the city's new sushi restaurants that had opened in the eleven years I had been gone.
I was wrong! And dumbfounded!
It turns out, that among FIVE different sushi places I tried to visit in Downtown Boise on a Sunday afternoon, not a single ONE of them was open for lunch. It wasn't that they were closed on Sundays altogether, either -- most, if not all, of them were open for dinner a few hours later. It's an embarassment of sorts: one thing I learned in the "big city" tech industry while I was gone is that while the Japanese may regard sushi as dinner fare, in this country, it is overwhelmingly a lunch item.
Posted by Spud Zeppelin in
about
Tuesday, September 26. 2006
Yes, the site has been down for a while, but that was by design.... I had a lot going on with moving back to Boise, and so on. However, the site is back, and expect a whole deluge of posts forthcoming.
Some things will NOT be back, however:
- Technical/Professional posts and content by the owner; these will have a(nother) new home soon.
- Discussion related to any old tools that may have been used to produce the site in the past.
- Overtly personal posts by the owner; he already has another site for those.
What this site WILL focus on:
- Idaho, particularly politics, public policy, and lifestyle
- Lengthy, meaningful commentary and discussion
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