Bullets of Cranktastic Goodness

As I am recovering from my illness (I'm up to about 60% of full power today, thanks!) I still lack the focus to create a posting masterpiece. My usual M. O. is essay-style, not bullet-style blog entries. But bullets are about all I can handle right now, so here goes.

• I have all kinds of brilliant ideas for posts, just no time (or energy) to follow through. Some topics of interest:
  
• Cars: basic mechanics, horsepower, RPMs, and getting the best gas mileage out of them
• Math: significant digits (this is related to the cars discussion), estimation, integration (also related to the cars discussion), game theory
  
• Computers: computer hardware, how a computer works, technology trends, supercomputers of the future
  
• Social Science: why torture is not useful (incorporating the game theory from the math discussion above); stereotyping and closed minds
  
• My sister Laura is getting ready to defend her dissertation next month. (Yay, Laura!) I'm supposed to make a cake for her party. I have a few ideas for an interesting cake, but if anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
• Getting sick really makes you appreciate your good health when you get it back. I'm at about 60%, but hey, I feel awesome compared to how I felt on Wednesday and Thursday!
  
• Vinny's learning a lot more words. For "milk," he hears only the final consonant and calls it "k" (like he did with "light"). He knows his nose, his mouth, his ears, and his eyes pretty consistently if you ask him where they are. He thinks most four-legged creatures are dogs, and that they all say "oof" (that's "woof" without the w).
  
• Also, last night when he and I were playing together, he peered between the handle and main body of his toy "workbench" and saw me. This was possibly the most hilarious thing ever. He then got a huge kick out of it when I poked my finger through there and beeped his nose.
• Speaking of his workbench toy, that thing is one of the most annoying toys out there. The problem is the fact that it counts and it sings the alphabet song.
  
• I have to know: Is the woman who joyously exclaims "One!!!!" "Two!!!!" ... "Ten!!!! Let's count again!!!!!!" that manic in real life? How did she inspire in herself so much enthusiasm about the numbers one through ten? And how did she feel about singing this somewhat stilted version of the alphabet song? Does she really love the letters that much? Was she paid well? I certainly hope so.
  
• Here in Tennessee we were part of Super Tuesday. Unfortunately my main man John Edwards had already bowed out of the race so I had to decide who to vote for between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. (I could have voted in the Republican primary, I suppose, but then I would have had no one to vote for.) I think that either one would be good (and definitely an improvement over the current occupant of the White House!), but in the end, I chose to vote for Hillary Clinton. Her health care plan is better than Obama's, she seems less homophobic than he is, and when we watched the debate the week before we really admired how well she did.
• Also, I'd really like to see a woman in the White House. It would be interesting to count the number of heads that exploded on Inauguration Day. (Think Clayton Bigsby the black white supremacist.)
  
• Is she perfect? No. Is any candidate perfect? No. Even John Edwards, whom I really liked, tried to paint Hillary Clinton as weak for being a woman. Not cool, John Edwards, not cool!
• Here's the thing: Attack her policies, her votes, whatever. Those are legitimately up for criticism. But attacking her for being a woman? Not appropriate. Ever.
• So that misogynist who suggested she was pimping out Chelsea? I hope he never finds another job. Rush Limbaugh, who said that we don't need to watch a woman age as president of the United States? He needs to STFU, for good. And the entitled assholes who hired these two losers? May they lose their entire fortunes to "uppity feminists" and "articulate minorities."