Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

International Delete Your Myspace Account Day

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 30, 2008
Post category:Personal
Post comments:2 Comments

[via Bloggasm, with a hat tip to Nick Mamatas] If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced any of the things on the list below, your account may be in need of deletion: 1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls. 2. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches. 3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east. 4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to…

On self-discipline and self-flagellation

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 28, 2008
Post category:Personal
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The most difficult aspect of writing, for me, has always been the self-discipline required to write every day, no matter what. I simply don’t have any. (Not just for writing, either, but that’s a whole other post!)

There are a number of legitimate ~~reasons~~ excuses I could put forward to explain why it’s so difficult to find the time to write on a regular basis, not the least of which are family and work obligations as well as my ruthless internal editor, but even if I won the lottery tomorrow and didn’t ever have to work again, I would still probably lack the self-discipline to stick to a regular routine of writing. (Blogging doesn’t count.) I envy those people who can wake up early in the morning to get a couple of hours of writing done before they start their day, but that’s not an option for me as my weekdays start at 6am without any writing, and staying up late comes with its own obstacles, not the least of which is sleep deprivation doesn’t make for very good writing.

I especially envy the old me who used to crank out at least one new poem each week, slam it at the Nuyorican on a Wednesday night (or later, read it every Monday at 13), and then move right on the next one, rarely looking back. Most of those poems weren’t very good, but the gears were always turning and I’d eventually revisit a few and edit them into something good whenever I hit a dry patch. Most of that writing was done at Botanica, a couple of nights each week after work, usually before the Nuyorican on Wednesdays and Fridays.

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Processing South Carolina

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 26, 2008
Post category:Uncategorized
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In my most optimistic guesses about tonight’s result, I wasn’t expecting anything close to the 2-1 thumping Obama gave Clinton tonight. The Clintons are already trying to characterize it as a black thing (Bill goes so far as to invoke Jesse Jackson) but it is so very clearly much more than that. To put it in perspective, Obama got more votes tonight than were cast for all of the candidates in the 2004 Democratic primary, and they weren’t all cast by black voters.

The best part about tonight was Obama’s victory speech, that didn’t quite hit the inspirational heights of his Iowa speech but delivered a clean gut punch to the Clinton’s strategy of “experience” and their embracing of typical Republican tactics, without ever mentioning them by name.

We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics; this is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out. And this election is our chance to give the American people a reason to believe again…

The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white.

It’s about the past versus the future.

It’s about whether we settle for the same divisions and distractions and drama that passes for politics today, or whether we reach for a politics of common sense, and innovation – a shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iVAPH_EcmQ]

If Iowa was the call, South Carolina was the response, and the next 10 days leading up to February 5th are going to be very, very interesting.

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Straight talk about the Clintons, the Media and South Carolina

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 26, 2008
Post category:Uncategorized
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Jack and Jill Politics has an excellent post entitled “The Clintons, Black Folk and America – A Reckoning” that takes the Clintons’ bait about how great the 90s were and feeds it back to them, barbed hook and all:

All folks, not just black, start to publicly dig into the past and challenge the assumptions of Bill’s blackness and his greatness.

Here’s what they find.

The mass incarceration of black men, due largely to a failed “War on Drugs”…

There was the deregulation of the banking industry…

There was the expansion of media consolidation…

There was the missed opportunity to set us on a path of a sane energy policy…

There was “welfare reform”…

There was the sitting by and watching millions of people get butchered in Rwanda

There was the set of trade deals that lowered our standards and helped gut America’s ability to provide for itself…

I’m glad the ugly has come out. I’m glad Bill Clinton’s face is glowing so brightly and so red; the better to see this campaign by. I’m glad Bill Clinton is getting down and dirty and using his considerable political capital to smear a great presidential candidate. I’m glad The Clintons are calling in favors from their black beholden elected officials and power brokers. Because every time they do, we get to dig up another little nugget which has us questioning the entire premise of “The Clinton Administration.”

And I’m glad Hillary keeps moving closer and closer to Bill, closer to that co-presidency. Keep running on “experience.” Just don’t get mad when we help remind people what that experience really was, and why many of us never want to see it return.

The whole post is worth reading, not just for black people who are on the fence about Obama, but for anyone who’s still falling for the okey-doke that Bill Clinton was a great president and that Hillary is a shoo-in in November.

ETA: TPM’s Josh Marshall, a self-professed Clinton fan, has an insightful post about his own concerns surrounding “Bill 2.0“.

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If I Had to Vote Republican

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 24, 2008
Post category:Uncategorized
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Random thoughts on tonight’s Republican Debate (live-blogging):

The format of the debate, with Brian Williams and Tim Russert asking specific questions with little follow-up or interaction from the other candidates makes things a little stilted. [ETA: This got better as the night wore on.] I was surprised and glad to see Ron Paul on the stage as I’m pretty sure his picture wasn’t in the opening graphic. He’s the Republican’s Dennis Kucinich and his voice is needed in these forums if only for his strident anti-war stance.

9:30pm: 30 minutes in and based purely on their performances so far, I kind of like Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee. There’s a clarity to their answers that’s noticeably missing from the others’, except arguably, for McCain, who I’d like a bit more if he weren’t so damn hawkish. Giuliani and Romney’s sourpusses are almost as off-putting as their tone and while Paul and Huckabee have some batshit-crazy stances on several issues, I don’t get the same images of “itchy trigger finger on the nuclear button” that I get from those two.

9:34pm: Russert asks, “Do you think the War in Iraq was worth it?” McCain basically says, “Hell, yeah!” though he equivocates quite a bit. Giuliani attacks Hillary Clinton’s flip-flopping on the war (rightly so) in giving his answer but ultimately says it was worth it. Paul says very straightfowardly, “It was a very bad idea and it wasn’t worth it.” Huckabee says that he supported the President, as did the Democrats, and that, effectively, it was worth it. Romney says yes, but says that it was mis-managed but the surge is working.

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High School Musical

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 24, 2008
Post category:Personal
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Taking a break from politics for some mindless memeing…

Go to this convenient compilation site right here http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php and find the five years you were in high school. For each year, admit to the song that was your favorite at the time, then decide which one you now generally consider to be the best song on the list. Lastly, pick the year’s worst song, snarking optional.

1983

Favorite: It’s hard not to pick one of Prince or David Bowie’s songs, all of which I still love, and I didn’t really discover “Faithfully” until several years later, so I’ll have to go with Spandau Ballet’s “True”.

Best: Without question, it’s Prince’s “1999”

Worst: Toto’s “Africa”

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WordPress Upgrade 2.3.2

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:January 23, 2008
Post category:Personal
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I just manually upgraded WordPress to the latest version (2.3.2) and had my fingers crossed the whole time that I wouldn't crash my site or destroy my database or something. All seems good on the back-end, though, and this post should confirm that my Facebook and LiveJournal cross-posting plug-ins are still working. ETA: All systems are go!