Burke's Joystick

No matter how hard I try to keep this blog updated, it seems like life is determined to side-rail me.  First, I had that family emergency that dominated September and most of October, and then my area gets hit with a possible candidate for Storm of the Century!  But I must persevere, for in the words of the great Catholic G.K. Chesterton: "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered."  Having quoted that, Hurricane Sandy was certainly more than an "incovenience" (does that make it an epic adventure for the optimist?  Am I now Bilbo Baggins?).  This storm blew through my community like an iron fist, toppling countless trees, smashing roofs, smashing cars, and, of course, destroying the electrical grid. Speaking of which:  for all of you weekend survivalists - you know, the ones who like to pretend they are starring in their own episode of The Walking Dead - being with...

Still trying to get caught up with this blog after a trying month and a half.... One bit of old business concerns the results of the last poll I conducted.  If you recall, the question was: If Mitt Romney was a character from a video game, which character would he be? The people have spoken!  The winner, with 66% of the vote, is....

I iz bak! Amazing how everything can change in a matter of minutes. For me, the world turned upside down about three week ago when my father had a heart attack. I never saw it coming as my father had no history of heart problems. Nonetheless, there I stood in the local emergency room early one Sunday morning wondering how we wound up in such dire straits. Interestingly, neither the ambulance techs, nor the emergency room doctors, could definitely conclude that my father was having a heart attack as the EKG was inconclusive, and my fathers symptoms were not the classic symptoms of a heart attack (pain down the arms and/or jaw, trouble breathing, etc.). In fact, for some three hours, the docs were thinking gallbladder attack or a bloodclot in the lung (his only symptoms were a severe pain off near his shoulder, and falling blood oxygen levels). However, the blood test showed that at some point he did have a heart attack.

As I watched (suffered through?) the Democrat National Convention, I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't watching a gathering of people expecting a November victory as much as I was watching what is sometimes referred to as an "Irish Wake" - that is, a raucous celebration during a time of mourning.  As with the biblical amalgamation "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die", I had the distinct impression of people forcing themselves to be happy on the eve of a crushing defeat.  This feeling was only reinforced when there was that whole platform controversy that resulted in the following awkward moment for the party:

The results are in for Burke's Joystick first official poll!  If you recall, the poll question was: If  Barack Obama was a character from a video game, which character would he be?  The choices were: Pac Man Capt. John Soap MacTavish from Call of Duty John Henry Eden from Fallout 3 Jim Raynor from Starcraft Kane from Command and Conquer Gordon Freeman from Half-life Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft Commander Shepard from Mass Effect Vladimir Makarov from Call of Duty The people have spoken!  The result:  Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft! This is a wise choice.  Truth is, the political rhetoric of Arcturus Mengsk, versus the latter reality, are quite similar to what we have experienced from Barack Obama.