The usual slimy GOP game is on

In the past two days, I've gotten two nearly-identical push poll robocalls here at home. Both were from Republican candidates for statewide office here in California. One was for the doomed Senate candidate, Dick Mountjoy (he's running against Dianne Feinstein, who is crushing him in the latest polls 56% to 34%). The other was for Tom McClintock, running for Lt. Governor, who is 10 points behind the Democrat, John Garamendi.

Both these GOP politicians are sacrificial lambs; they are paleo-conservatives that don't have a chance statewide. And it looks like they've both hired the same dumbass consultant. The calls use the candidates voice. They start out with a simple introduction, and then get right to the hard-hitting "poll questions," like "Do you agree that raising taxes is bad?" and "Do you believe that marriage is a sacred bond between one man and one woman?" The call asks you to respond "Yes" or "No." I tried answering "Blow it out your ass," but the system rejected that. Anyway, both calls ended with "Can I, [candidate name], depend on your vote this November?" That I could answer with a "Yes" or "No," though "Not a chance in hell, buddy" was still my preferred answer.

Friday Miscellanea

Lots of stuff going on, so let's just dive in:

• According to the Macworld Expo Conference site, it looks like I'm on a panel: Blogging Under The Hood. For some reason, this panel is part of the MacIT Conference, which I find strange because I'm not really an IT kind of person. What's really strange is that it's listed in their "Service Solutions using Mac OS X Server" track, which means that I'm seriously over my head. The good news: with fellow panelists like John C. Welch, Andy Ihnatko, and Chuck Goolsbee, the chances are good that I won't be able to get a word in edgewise anyhow, so the glow of their amazing expertise and depth of knowledge should hopefully extend over to encompass me, and people will leave thinking that I know something about the topic.

• Yeah, I was supposed to get together tonight with Maryam and Robert Scoble, but no joy, as they were running late. Hmmm… they became unavoidably detained right after I told Robert that I was going to be on the above panel with John…

  Nah, I don't think that the two are related, but I did tell Robert that he was welcome to come and heckle the session. I figure people like my co-panelists can handle the pressure.

• What can I say about the Weird Al music video, White and Nerdy, that everyone else isn't already saying? Okay, he got me with the JavaScript and Renaissance Faire references. And a few others.

• How come I'm only finding out now that Yahoo! Hack Day is next weekend? Damn, I would love to go, but I have plans for next Friday night. Damn and double damn.

  Come to think of it, it's things like this that make me realize that I really need a friend or acquaintance who lives in the SF/Valley area with a spare bedroom from time to time. In return, I can offer an occasional spare bedroom in the wine country — if this is something that might work for you, let me know.

• The wild and wacky (and darn smart) folks at Take Control Books (mentioned in my previous post) have come out with a new title: Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner. Yes, really. Written by Joe Kissell, it's exactly what it sounds like. And if that sounds like you, you should also check out his new blog, The Geeky Gourmet.

• So far as I can tell, chat (as mentioned in the post below) is working on the new BlackBerry. But I can't actually tell, as, in spite of the blatant hint below, no one has pinged me to chat. Or possibly y'all have been trying it, and it's not notifying me that you're doing so. Or maybe I'm not showing up as online? Let me know.

• And to end back where I started: one of the feature presentations at 2007's Macworld Expo is a Q&A with Kevin Smith. Yes, that Kevin Smith. I'll be the one hanging around early to try to get a good seat and hoping that I can get my copy of Chasing Dogma signed. See you there!

It's quiet... too quiet...

I wish I could claim that we're super-busy here and that's why there hasn't been much blogging, but sadly, there's online proof that we've been goofing off (at least a little).

If you're trying to reach me, I'm in and out all the time. Your best bet is to try to find me on IM, which I've just managed to get set up with my new BlackBerry phone. Yes, I broke down and got myself a smart (or at least smartish) phone. So far, so frustrating, but I've been able to solve just about every problem I've come across (after way too many hours, though). Time for someone to write Take Control of Your BlackBerry, I think…

Calling our Kiwi and Aussie friends...

Or anyone who knows about good places to stay in Auckland and Sydney. We'll be in Auckland between 25 October and 27 October, and in Sydney from 10 November through 14 November. We've never been to either place, so we don't know the lay of the land or whereabouts we should stay in either city. But we know some of our readers must have opinions and good suggestions. We're looking for moderately-priced hotels that are well-located for tourists. We don't like to rough it, but we don't need the Four Seasons, either. We would prefer to not rent a car, so access to transportation is a must (my bad leg will preclude us from doing a lot of walking).

So we have two main questions: first, what part of town would be a good place to stay? And second, where would you suggest that we stay? Let us know in the comments. And thanks in advance.