Where have I been? What do I think of Palin?

Apologies for my long silence. Things finally started to get busy at work. Before they got busy, I was seriously considering chasing after other options, but the current job came together a bit more at last before any such options really presented themselves. Working for a startup agrees with me so far. We release our flagship product in October, and after that it looks like there'll be a lot of business travel around Asia. Having not left Singapore since April, I'm definitely looking forward to that. In better-still news, I got a big raise this past week, although I won't actually see the money until the end of October. There will probably be more in store shortly after that, as that's when we start selling our software.

So...after going back and forth on the issue several times, I have tentatively settled on sticking around here for a while yet.

I didn't see any of the Democratic convention last week, but I read all the major speeches and was mostly quite impressed. It's about time Democrats start talking like Democrats again for a change. So what of Sarah Palin? I'm really trying to figure out what McCain must have been thinking, but I can't. I don't get it. If I had to guess, I'd go with the theory of appealing to disgruntled Clinton supporters. That at least makes the pieces fit together a bit better: he thought picking a female running mate would do the trick (and yes, that's ridiculous...but it is the way right-wingers tend to think about these things), and Palin is the only prominent female Republican out there at the moment who isn't either pro-choice or too close to Bush. He doesn't appear to have considered much else about her, but then there isn't a whole lot else to consider.

I have to admit that I am a bit concerned about the VP debate. I already wasn't very fond of Joe Biden because of his incredibly inept performance in the Clarence Thomas hearings, and having him debate a woman is only going to make that issue that much harder to forget. The fact that said woman is to the right of Thomas should neutralize that issue, but I'm not sure it will.

And since the misogynistic comments and "jokes" are already appearing around the net, this site is worth a look. I am curious as to how many of the offenders are McCain supporters, and how many of those will think twice about voting for a ticket with a woman on it. I don't want that to be the reason why Obama wins, but the poetic justice would be delicious at the same time.