It's only once every several years that a raucous event such as Halloween falls on a Friday night, which seems to have gained a reputation for being the most raucous of all the nights of the week. As loud as the sound of squealing tires and yelling voices might normally be, it can only be expected to be louder tonight. That's fine. Large steel plates and loose gravel in the middle of the road don't help, though.

Halloween seems to be one of those days that either garners tons of interest or tons of apathy. This particular house is clearly in the practice of handing out apathy to anyone that happens upon the doorstep. Thankfully it has been a quiet night without any looks of expectation, destined to go unfulfilled. Again, that's fine. It's one of those times where nobody is trying to stretch out the night, because the sooner the night ends, the sooner tomorrow begins.

There isn't any real horror to Halloween. All the masks, costumes and fake identities that sometimes only serve as cruel reminders of what kind of people lie beneath on the other 364 days of the year. Halloween allows for people to not be themselves and intentionally mislead others, but it's encouraged, so that's fun. Maybe?

Presently, the best thing to be on Halloween is asleep.

There are times when blogs suffer because life is just life. There may not be anything remarkable going on, or at least not in a way that would appeal to third-party readers. Life is interesting enough by itself for everyone, everyday. Sometimes those who are gifted offer their perspective and it just works. This is not one of those outlets. This is more of a throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks outlet and results vary. This is also a uses-way-too-many-dashes-to-seperate-words-in-an-effort-to-be-descriptive-when-everyone-knows-a-better-vocabulary-would-solve-the-problem kind of outlet.

A good reading experience on the internet seems to be similar to watching a classic episode of Seinfeld. You're not really reading about anything, but yet you read. You absorb. You retain. You share. How many conversations start with "So I was reading something on the internet today...", only to eventually get around to "It's sorta like that episode of Seinfeld..."? Sometimes people just like to have things pointed out to them. Commentary on politics, economics and particle colliders is interesting to a point, but it's harder to place those topics into everyday life than the perplexing phenomenon of people characterizing their families by placing cartoon figures, or better yet, pictures of flip-flops, on the backs of their cars. That's something everyone can make a personal decision about, granting far more involvement than presidential elections, economic policy or advances in science. Everyone just waits for the outcome of that kind of stuff, but not whether the family dog should actually be considered a "member" of the family on the back of the family SUV.

But yeah, the simple life, devoid of major conflict or commentary, is not a bad thing, despite its inherant simplicity. Obviously commas aren't bad either. Once the important decisions, such as which chicken finger restaurant to visit for lunch, are made, the essense of life is what's left. Kind of like long division and those cursed remainders. It just doesn't feel right for there to be a remainder, but in this case, it's quite comforting.

There has to be some tangible benefit to sitting for hours watching the "live feed" on the redesigned Facebook. It feels like watching a stock ticker, but thankfully, your well-being, livihood and retirement plan are not on the line. The live feed is addictive, though, and if you're the sort to challenge yourself to senseless games and such, it could be fun. Make it a drinking game if you must or something. Some ideas for letting the live feed actually dominate your life:

-Guess who might pop up next with some type of activity
-Compare elapsed time between individuals' activities
-See which type of activity is most/least common

Ok, that sounds very boring. Maybe it's a terrible idea. Then again, if it were spiced up a little bit, it might have potential:

-Wait and see who makes the next inane political statement for either side of the fence. This can be via status update, wall post, note, etc. Promptly respond by calling them an idiot.

-Have a little competition to see who can pile the most praise upon themselves via a status update. Next time you see this person, give them a Burger King crown, with "ME" scrawled across it.

-Perform linear regression analysis on the relationship between people who post pictures of themselves, but don't tag themselves versus those who do. This won't really accomplish anything, but you weren't accomplishing anything by obsessing over the live feed in the first place.

-Send comments to girls that are married about whether they like their new last name more or less than their maiden name. Compare to who has changed their name on Facebook or not.

-Wait until a Saturday and intentionally don't watch Alabama football. Rely on Facebook updates for all your news related to the game. See if it makes a difference on how much you actually know about what went on.

-Change your relationship status, on average, once every 12 hours. See how many people suddenly take interest in your life.

Ok, this has some promise. Please respond with your results if you decide to participate in this new form of entertainment.

As much as someone might want to really "get into" this election and be supportive, one way or another, it's getting really hard.

The candidate that has been tapped to represent a more open-minded, non-fundamental, loosy-goosy lifestyle has been deified. Ok, maybe that was just a ploy to get an Urban Outfitters and Depeche Mode reference into your totally hip editorial? Umm, maybe not.

The candidate that is trying to offer an alternative to his "elitist" opponent did a good job of selecting a running mate that is far from elitist, but then destroys that whole notion.

Oh, but the elitism still abounds across the aisle, for sure. Where might that money go? To such valuable efforts as ensuring that everyone can feel special as a targeted voter demographic. Aww, how inclusive!

These truly are amazing times.

There are those moments in life where you wonder who is watching. Not that it always matters, but it's human nature to want people to see you in a positive light, if at all possible.

Such is the case at the gym. Not just the gym, but the gym where there are those little TV screens attached to many of the machines. This creates an interesting situation, especially for the kind of person that gets their news from the internet or word of mouth and not the 5 o'clock news. While many responsible people are watching local news, CNN, FoxNews, etc., some are watching VH1, ESPN or something like Project Runway. Then there are those disgusting people that watch Family Guy on the local CW affiliate.

Of course it has to be that even though Family Guy is rated TV-14 and shown at 5pm locally, it gives the appearance that the viewer is a complete heathen, especially since the gym in question is the YMCA. Not to mention, a YMCA where the "C" seems to be especially present. Granted, Family Guy isn't typical wholesome programming, but some episodes are worse than others. Rest assured, though, when it comes on at the gym, it has to be the episodes where Lois is naked throughout, Jesus is portrayed as a redneck, Quagmire obsesses over female anatomy or Hitler plays a significant role.

Ok, maybe it's not that rare for all of this to show up frequently on this show. It is a funny show, though, but this is further evidence that The Simpsons is more creative and more intelligent than Family Guy. Maybe that's all this post was supposed to say.

The only real drawback to Sundays in Autumn is that another week at work looms near, or at least for those with "traditional" work schedules. The prospect of watching NFL football all afternoon while obsessing over fantasy football stats is a pleasant one. The only disappointment comes from looking out the window to see the sun shining brilliantly and a breeze supplementing the brisk temperature in the mid-60s. If there were a way to watch all NFL games with live stat tracking while outside doing something active, the market on happiness would be cornered.

The attention to detail that results from participating in fantasy sports is definitely easy to mock, but there could be something valuable to it. Fantasy football encourages full participation in a weekend's full slate of games, something that would otherwise be almost unheard of. It generates interest in all team's games, thus making the overall experience more enjoyable. There are no bye weeks, there are no road games, there are no bad matchups. It becomes the great equalizer.

Imagine if the same type of arrangement existed for other professions. If there were a measurable and contestable line of statistics that accompanied everything you did at work/school/whatever, how might that affect performance? You could get points for every menial task you perform at the office, but if you do enough of them, those menial points will add up to something significant. You could also save up all your time and energy to do something truly significant, but only get the payoff in one big lump sum.

Consistency would also be key. Everyone would be less inclined to choose the guy that might pull of a great bid proposal or close a deal every once in a while, only to spend the next few weeks playing solitaire. It's better to have a steady performer that comes to work everyday ready to be productive in some form.

There probably is already a good bit of this mindset present in work environments. Everyone knows a LenDale White that puts up pretty good numbers most of the time, but only because he is the fortunate beneficiary of goalline carries set up by Chris Johnson running down the other 90-something yards of the field. White may score more points some weeks, but it doesn't mean he had a better game than Johnson. There is always someone there to claim the glory, even if they weren't responsible for it in the first place. All it means is that Johnson likely did enough to have a good game himself, while putting White in position to have a good game also. Double duty of sorts.

Even in this new form of fantasy sports, trash talking is encouraged. Without trash-talkers, there wouldn't be anyone for everyone to hate. So feel free to do it, but just know that all your coworkers hate you.

Update: Ok, so LenDale White had a big run of his own yesterday. He's still fat and steals Chris Johnson's touchdowns.

Happiness is a strange brew. A unique combination of ingredients can lead to a unique result, or a familiar result that is altogether new and satisfying. It might be hard to pinpoint exactly what the key ingredient is, so everything deserves proper attention.

The fun starts with the number 2 team in college football, of course. Not counting anything before it hatches, but it's pretty awesome.

Then there is the Tampa Bay Rays and their continuing deconstruction of the Red Sox. Unless you're a dyed in the wool Boston fan, there is no excuse not to support the Rays. The team is truly a great story and the letters E-v-a-L-o-n-g-o-r-i-a never meant anything significant until this guy came along.

Album reissues often yield mixed results, but Pavement's Brighten The Corners is a sure thing. Invest in it, say thanks later. While you're giving Matador Records your money, go ahead and get Belle & Sebastian's Live At The BBC when it comes out. Only 70-something shopping days left until Christmas, after all.

Casual observations...

*Traffic on the interstate is much more manageable during the middle of the day. It's like a special little reward for leaving work for extended periods of time. However, traffic at the Taco Bell drive-through is far greater around lunch time. So much so that people trying their best to not go to Taco Bell must suffer the consequences of those that do. Truly an outrage.

*Belmont University looks like Eastern European remnants of the Soviet Bloc these days. Now that the debate (see last entry) has passed, those ominous chainlink fences and security checkpoints just don't seem as useful. On a related note, getting to sleep was much easier last night without the sirens, helicoptors and clanging security gates.

*This whole month-long drought followed by torrential downpour followed by month-long drought thing is entertaining, but a little overdone. A nice healthy schedule for rain would be appreciated by all. Pace yourself, Mother Nature. Otherwise, people will start listening to Al Gore again.

*It's fun to hear the progress Obama is making to win votes from the supposedly braindead, redneck, backwards, racist, fundamentalist, crooked buffoons in red states that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. That's quite a "constituency for change", no? It's nice to know that your value as a human can be redeemed solely by whether your vote agrees with the new breed of political hipsters.

*Brady Quinn supports McCain. The support of the Cleveland Browns' backup quarterback should be all he needs to pull out a victory in November. At least Quinn's team has a victory this season. McCain needs to be associated with winners these days.

*It still doesn't top seeing a Bentley parked at Captain D's in Birmingham, but there was a Bentley parked at today's chicken finger-specializing lunch spot. Today's choice was the unexplicably-named "Maniac's". It is a true sign of the economic hardship in our country when a man and his Bentley must resort to eating delicious golden-fried chicken fingers for lunch with the rest of us.

After a quick viewing of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which was quite an interesting thing to watch immediately preceding, welcome to the 2008 Presidential Election Debate live blog. This is being brought to you in glorious high-definition detail from a sofa across the street from the very same Belmont University in the very same Nashville, Tennessee as the debate.

Obama: Goes first, so gets first dig and first example of hindsight being 20/20, but sounds visionary coming from a presidential candidate. Added bonus: first appeal to the middle-class.

McCain: Answers the economic question with energy independence. Big surprise. Like vice president candidate, like president candidate. Tom Brokaw gives the most uncomfortable chuckle in the history of mankind. McCain doesn't know who his Secretary of the Treasury would be, but that's forgivable. Ok, now he has some choices and chose the founder of eBay.

Obama: Warren Buffet? Really? Ok, back to the middle class. The best way to help the middle class is to make a multi-billionaire head of the treasury? First "stop talking so long and deciding the course of discussion yourself" warning.

Cue the creepy camera angle of Obama's head appearing to rest on McCain's shoulder while he talks. Quickly find another angle. This one is just too creepy.

McCain: Score one for remembering Alan's name when he's talking to Oliver. Impressive.

Obama: Snap. Economically, we're living in the 20th century. We're soooo 9 years ago. He's not really sure how to handle the de-mon-stra-tive lady and her question. At least his eyes didn't get $700 billion big, like the lady sitting a row back. Here's energy independence, Obama-style. Net...spending...cut. So let's get this straight, the people controlling Washington are lobbyists and special interest groups, but not the Democratic Congress they serve? Interesting.

McCain: He's definitely on the attack. $860 billion in new spending? Porkbarrels? $3 million overhead projectors in Chicago? This is confusing. Can't wait for the response. Referencing a $3 million projector is fighting words. Brokaw does not have time for all this jibber-jabber during the one-minute comment. Wait, what are those three things? Uh, welfare...uh...energy...um...cheeseburgers? Ding, ding: clean coal and terrorists. Double bonus.

Obama: Ooooooooh, he said "Nashville". He loves us. JFK reference. Everyone loves JFK. Healthcare is broken, but only #2 on his list. We probably need to model our "broken" heathcare program after Cuba's in order to fix it. The audience looks bored. They may be trying to hide their partisanship, but they look sad. Aren't debates about fun?

McCain: Sweet! A 78 year old! Using the internet! Talk about serving up a softball. This is proof that people can live past 73. 78! Ha! That's one term and with an extra year to help President Palin get elected. Now we're talking about earmarks for the contents of those porkbarrels and transparencies for that overhead projector.

Obama: "A lot" of us remember 9/11? Thanks for considering all the kids under 7 that might not remember 9/11. What a guy. Back to energy, but not before critiquing Bush's recommendation that shopping is patriotic in response to a terrorist act. Oh wait, young people...Peace Corps! Yeah, double that. Surely that won't cost anything. Perfect, the next question is about debt. This should be good. He hasn't mentioned the 78 year old in Chicago yet. It was her question. Use a scalpel, not a hatchet. How long would this scalpel take to fix everything?

McCain: He is name-dropping Herbert Hoover. Not helping that whole "age" issue. First Palinism, "the news is baaaad". Says "Amuricun" a la W.

Obama: Trying to break the rules. Brokaw shuts him down. Now Tom is asking his own question. This is pure anarchy. "My first term as President". Dang. "The Straight-Talk Express lost a wheel" drew smirks from the audience, but they tried to hide it. They clearly have Obama fever and are in heat. Ok, we've already heard about this. $300 billion, $200 billion, $700,000...

McCain: He's here to answer the question, friends. We need more Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neil, except in the living form. Stop making people think of dead white dudes, Johnny. Uh oh, there's that 94 votes for raising taxes following Obama. Rebuttal is surely coming. His best days are ahead of him. Bold. What are "green jobs"? Disagreement with Bush Administration. Good start. For the record, he is saying "nuclear" properly. Don't believe anyone saying otherwise. He is having trouble with "alternative", though. That's twice now.

Obama: Where is this computer talk going? What is going to be like the computer? What's a computer? He says "nuclear" correctly also. What a relief. 3% of oil reserves and 25% of the use. Heard this before.

McCain: Uh oh...now we're in favor of big government spending. Off-shore drilling is vital. Is it fundamental? Oh wait, there it is: fundamental economics. Supply and demand, baby.

Obama: Heathcare. No answers yet. McCain is lurking. Please stop. Ok, here's the plan. Computers! Use computers! Obama is getting the yellow light. This is like a elementary school cafeteria. Mammograms and maternity leave? What about dudes?

McCain: The internet! Reduce errors! Fundamental! $5000 credit for healthcare! Cross state lines! Hair transplant joke = crash and burn. $5000 again!

Obama: Fundamental. Healthcare is a right, but an enforceable right? Clearly McCain hates children. He wants them to die. Whoaaaaaaaaaaa, he just called out Delaware for loose banking laws. Hello Joe Biden, his state and MBNA interests. Dang.

McCain: "The greatest force for good in the history of the Earth". Wow. Oh right, he's old, he would know. Almost forgot.

Obama: Turn it around. He'll tell us what he doesn't understand. Had to be done, though. Iraq. About time. The Iraqis have a $79 billion surplus? Who knew? We must be doing a great job there. Better than here, for sure. Fundamental. Fundamental. Ok, so we can use military force as a moral judgment call? Brokaw threw a curve. Well played, Tom.

McCain: He says "my friends" a lot. Kinda mumbling. Fundamental. "Cool hand at the tiller". Are we farmers? Is "beneficially" a good word? Must be, he's using it repetitively, although not beneficially. Spell check isn't catching it. Must be OK.

Obama: End the war. But don't bring the boys home. Send them all to Afghanistan. We will KILL bin Laden and CRUSH al Queda.

McCain: He says "Pakistan" like a normal person. He can't decide how he wants to pronounce "Taliban".

This is starting to drag. Most of what people will remember from this is Tom Brokaw playing hall monitor to keep the kids in line. Obama is talking now and McCain is trying to be funny. Blah, blah, blah. McCain is asking permission to speak, which is strange. He is appearing to be a teacher's pet to Professor Brokaw. These guys need to prove a point and give a straight answer to the question that was asked, then sit down. McCain can do that strange leaning against the stool thing he's been doing and Obama can keep that "one knee up" contemplative look that works so well. They just need to shut up first.

McCain: Russia=Putin=K. G. B. No Cold War, but Russia must pay. They must understand. We will use "leverage" to make that happen.

Obama: Support the Poles, Estonia, Latvia...uh...all those other countries. What is up with the guy that wore his trucker hat into the debate? Was that allowed? Is that Joe Six-Pack? Does he live on Main Street? Clearly not Main Street in East Nashville. The key to Russia? Energy independence, of course.

McCain: Pandering to the Navy guy. He ate it up, though. Can McCain answer a question about Iran attacking Israel without mentioning Obama's "buddy" Ahmadinejad? Nope. A "league of democracies"? Sounds like comic book superheroes.

Obama: Hasn't mentioned his buddy yet. Cost-benefit analysis? Haha. Did he see that guy talk to Michelle? Trouble brewing.

McCain: Talking about his dad being off in the military while he was growing up. People are doing the math and trying to figure out which war that might have been. Civil? 1812? Another "tiller" reference. Farmers must love this.

Ok, it's over. Lots of hand-shaking. Lots of smiling. Everyone is just trying to find a way to hang around and avoid going out in this heavy rain that has just returned. This is the kind of first-person perspective that you, prospective voters, need in times such as these. TV commentators don't know it's raining outside the debate right now.

Obviously Kodak got the contract to provide disposable cameras to the audience members. One guy had his digital out, but his buddy took a crooked picture of him and Obama, but there wasn't time for another. Too bad, dude. You won't be gaining any Facebook friends tomorrow thanks to that picture. One girl is eagerly getting Tom Brokaw's autograph and a picture with him. She might have missed the whole point of this event. Glad she's voting!

Well, it's raining and time for bed. After the past couple of hours, it shouldn't be tough to find.

Appreciation is worth more than pity.

Yeah.

Time is money. Time is of the essense. "Time, Love and Tenderness" are apparently important to Michael Bolton. And yes, timing is everything.

With the possible exception of the Michael Bolton angle, all of this is quite true. Time is a uniquely compelling force that probably affects more in the world than anything else. Well, maybe money does...oh right, time IS money.

Time can seem endless (see today's workday for an example) or fleeting (see this upcoming weekend). We can try to master time, but it doesn't work. Really whoever appears to do the best to manage time is actually just the most submissive. That's not a bad thing, though. Sometimes acceptance is the key to success.

When young, a favorite activity while not paying attention class was to start and stop the stopwatch on a sweet Casio calculator watch as fast as possible. The watch had a display that showed hundreths of a second, so there was the potential for variability, even under the slightest condition changes. The fastest start/stop accomplished was 0.07 seconds, but this was done by taking the watch off and pressing the button against the desk. A rapid "tap, tap" would yield such results. The best time for fingers on the buttons was 0.11 seconds, if memory serves. This was an early experience with the power of time to completely absorb all the attention of a fully-functioning human. Not much has changed.

We have taken steps to control time, such as time zones and daylight-savings time, but it's not really controlling anything. We're just making time accomodate us better because we know it can't be overpowered. A concession, basically. It's the same as putting a dam across a river. It doesn't really change what a river is and what it's goal is. The water is still there and we must deal with it, even if it sits in a reservoir. The water could care less. Neither could time.