Yesterday's post was getting a lot of views and comments, so I left it up overnight.

• A Date from Craigslist

We have another post going up at noon and another a few hours later... one of them is about vampires.  I am surrounded by people who love vampires.  A friend of mine is obsessed with vampires, and gave my wife an audiobook of Twilight.  Then before you know it, my wife had bought all four books in the Twilight series... and was watching True Blood too.  Then they all went to see Twilight on opening night.  Thank god Halloween just passed, or we'd all be going as vampires this year.

I guess you could say I am racist against vampires.  Is that wrong of me?  But I mean, they suck people's blood through their teeth!  That's pretty gross, and unsanitary too.  Plus they have an infectious disease that causes humans to die and then come back to life wearing all black clothes (like emo Spidey in Spider-Man, but immortal).  I think my racism is well deserved — but all racists probably think that.

I guess what I am saying is that if anyone has a good anti-vampire post... I would love to feature it.  Or if you have any other posts you think would be good for the frontpage, please add the link here!  I'm also looking for a nice post about Thanksgiving that isn't too cheeseball... lemme know if you've seen anything along those lines.

Happy Turkey Day!

My lucky number is 13.  When I played football in high school, I was #39 as a running back... #65 as a noseguard... and #78 as an offensive guard.  Everyone on the team asked me why all my numbers were divisible by 13.  Just kidding... I don't think anyone noticed my divisors.

What's your lucky numbah?

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

My list of favorite TV shows has shifted this fall, mostly because all of my shows are on USA Networks and those shows only air in the summer (boo!!).

Since I know you're dying to know what my favorite fall TV shows are, here is my newly updated list of favorite shows.  There's one from each network, just to be fair:

• Dexter (Showtime) - So good... whoever made the show must be so twisted.  I think it would creep me out to meet them.
• Entourage (HBO) - Maybe my favorite show, largely b/c of Ari Gold.  How he can say all that stuff and not get sued is a testament to how badly people want to work in Hollywood.
• The Shield (FX) - I love Vic Makey, although the show is getting a little too depressing as the series nears its end...
• The Unit (CBS) - Well, half of this show is my favorite.  I only watch the scenes with the boys, I fast fwd the scenes with the wives.
• Terminator (Fox) - Good stuff, although I haven't seen the last few eppies.  Am slightly embarrassed to tell people I like the show, which is why I'm forcing myself to blog about it.
• Smallville (The CW) - I like anything with Superman in it, despite the disappointment that was Superman Returns.
• 30 Rock (NBC) - Tina Fey is God(dess).  I didn't realize that she lost 30 pounds the summer before she started doing Weekend Update!  No wonder she is so down to earth - she has low self-esteem.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FXO - Ok, FX has two shows on my list.  I almost took this off, but it actually may be my favorite show overall.  Consistently dark, amoral and twisted.  This list is making me feel a lot darker than I think I am.

I feel like I should also watch Mad Men on AMC because it gets so many raves, but in my defense I don't know what number channel that is.  Also I did watch Bones last year, but I think I mentioned that in an earlier post and I want to sound new and interesting.  I have no interest in watching True Blood, because vampires gives me the creeps.  Why do girls love vampires so much?  Gross.

Amazingly, I don't watch much TV these days... I just DVR and Hulu the above shows when I get the chance.  With all this new technology, it's easier than ever to cherrypick the best TV shows.

What are you watching these days?

I am in desperate need of wifi for my PC at home.  I've bought wireless routers in the past, and they just haven't worked out.  To be honest, I was shocked at how many settings I had to change in order to set up each router!  That seemed ridiculous to me... but what do I know.  In any case, all the routers either didn't work or quickly stopped working.

Are there any plug and play routers for the PC that just work?  I am willing to pay any price for an easy to use wireless router!  I will give you my soul for working wifi (can you tell that I am not religious?).

Help a Xangan out!  Any advice for the wifi-impaired?

John

ps if you tell me to just get an Apple... I will hate you.  Well I probably envy you on some level.  But Apple ads have been so smug lately that my envy has been corrupted into annoyance/hate.  Seriously, is buying an Apple the only way to get easy wifi?!

If I sub to your site, you don't have to ask people to rec your posts or insult me in the posts to get my attention.  I read all my subs, so odds are that I will see your post.

I like to think I am pretty approachable.  I've become good friends with a number of you.  I've had lunch and/or coffee with dozens of you.  I've talked on the phone with hundreds of you, and emailed/messaged with thousands of you.  I even married one of you .

I understand that people are passionate about Xanga, and that's awesome.  I just want to point out that you don't have to work very hard to get my attention.  Just send me a link to your post and I will almost certainly read it.

I just got back from a weeklong trip to visit my parents overseas, so I'm a bit behind on subs and private messages.  I'll catch up on that, and then maybe write a public response to some of the posts that I've seen floating around in the past week or so.

John

I was talking to a friend, and he was telling me how if he was choosing between two candidates equal in every way besides education... he would choose the candidate from Harvard (or Stanford/Yale/etc.).

I would actually probably choose the one that had gone to the state school.  I have been thinking about why, and I don't have a great answer.  But it reminded me of a saying I heard once: "A students work for B students, and B students work for C students."

When I first heard it, I thought it was bunk... but as I've gotten older, I've been stunned at how true it can be.  Don't get me wrong - it's not an ironclad rule... I know plenty of successful A students.  But I've been hugely surprised by the number of B and C students who are hugely successful.

I guess I am wondering if maybe school isn't that important.  The best schools... the best grades... does it really matter?

I came across an interesting comment:

I'm not saying this comment is necessarily about me (and I like the person who wrote it, so please don't think I am calling them out!).  But it got me thinking.

I am definitely blogging less and pulsing more lately.  I guess it's been harder to find time to blog since I got married a few years ago!  That said, I still subscribe to tons of blogs, and comment a whole bunch.  I try to be a good Xangan!  But the comment got me thinking, and I think the commenter has a fair point - I have been blogging less.

Am I a bad Xangan?

Dear Xanga,

I have a wifi-enabled laptop and sometimes I access non-secured wifi access points (I know, terrible).  I've heard that there's software you can install to encrypt your data stream... does anyone know where I can get me some of that?

Thanks!
John

Do you believe in Karma?

There are a few forms of karma:

• A literal Karma - There is karmic energy in the universe and like Santa, it knows if you've been bad or good.  So you're incented to be a good person.
• A metaphorical Karma - You don't want to do bad things to people; because what goes around, comes around.  So you try to be a good person.
• A psychological Karma - If you do bad things to people, your subconscious will remember and sabotage you somehow.  So you want to be a good person, so you don't end up punishing yourself.

I have to run so I can't elaborate, but I am curious what you all think...

There is a long list of things for which the enlightened person is expected to be tolerant:

• Racial background
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• Age
• Gender

I try to hold myself to this high standard, and attempt to be relatively enlightened.  It's taken some time to get here... but I am proud of how far I've come.

But one thing that has been troubling me greatly is intolerance... for intolerance.  For example:

• Say a racist shares some of his or her thinking out loud.
• Or a homophobe talks about why they don't like gay people
• Or a misogynist opens up about why they hate women

When this happens, it becomes a feeding frenzy.  Everyone is so quick to condemn the racist/homophobe/misogynist.  Then that person slinks away into the night, as racist/homophobic/misogynistic as ever... and determined never to talk about it ever again.  Intolerance is the one thing that we're allowed to judge and condemn, and so when we see it - we jump all over it.

Am I turned off by racist/homophobic/misogynistic thoughts?  Yes, definitely.  Do I condemn them absolutely?  Without a doubt. But I am 33 years old.  Was I born a perfect enlightened person?  No.  I didn't know anyone openly gay growing up.  I heard the words "fag" and "gay" on a regular basis growing up, and yes - I used those words casually myself when I was young.  Then one day, someone called me on it and I realized that that wasn't who I wanted to be.  So I changed.

When someone says something intolerant... I like to talk about it.  I like to ask them why they said it, and what their goal was in sharing.  Then I let them know my position and why I very much disagree with them.  Maybe I will advance tolerance and understanding just a little bit?  Maybe I'll even learn from the person, about where they're coming from and why they feel the way they feel.

I see this intolerance for intolerance so often that I am becoming intolerant of it!  (Intolerance... for intolerance for intolerance?).  So I am writing this post to remind myself that tolerance is about more than rejecting discrimination.  It's about opening your mind to someone else's perspective - even if you violently disagree with it - and having an open and honest discussion about a difficult subject.