Opinion: What ‘House of Cards’ gets wrong – Joshua Braver – POLITICO.com

Kelly got me hooked on the Netflix series “House of Cards.” I spent the post-Christmas days going through all 13 episodes from Season 1. While I’m anxiously awaiting next month’s release of Season 2, I found this gem explaining what House of Cards. It’s good to keep this in mind after watching (though it does have some plot spoilers – be warned!)

I pity the writers of House of Cards.Sure, the lurid political drama, which debuted on Netflix earlier this year, has become an Internet sensation, with a dream lineup of actor Kevin Spacey and director David Fincher. Plus it’s now nominated for nine awards at the Emmys this Sunday, including outstanding drama series.

But the show’s writers have an impossible task — which makes for some far-fetched plot twists.

via Opinion: What 'House of Cards' gets wrong – Joshua Braver – POLITICO.com.

Highlights of 2013: Blog news

This year was full of blog-related news. Early on, I had to migrate my site from one hosting provider, VPS Farm, to another, RootBSD. VPS Farm offered wonderful service and had tools built to allow me to maintain my site anytime I wanted. RootBSD has been a good hosting provider as well, with near-rock-solid performance and a friendly, knowledgeable staff. Most of this transition was behind the scenes for most of my MT.Net readers, thankfully.

My blog showed up in a number of places. Earlier this summer, my friend Scott Huler linked to a post I wrote about our solar PV installation (more on that in a minute). The post brought quite a bit of traffic to my site and made me think of ways I might make money with my blogging. I approached Salon regarding a blogging position they had and reactivated the dormant Google AdSense ads I once had on my blog. Now the advertising revenue pays for about half of my hosting fees. I’m not living large but it’s better than nothing!
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Highlights of 2013: Edward Snowden

I went back and forth on including Edward Snowden on my list, since I normally like to include just things that I’ve been directly involved with. There’s no denying that the spying revelations brought forth by Edward Snowden has affected me, if in no other way than to sour me on the state of American affairs. Tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone? Go for it. Terrorists in Yemen plotting a bombing? Vector that Hellfire straight through that phone. But UNICEF? Brazilian oil companies? Innocent American citizens, who ostensibly have the right to be free from suspicion and unreasonable searches? Way, way, WAY over the line.

Fortunately one federal judge has seen the light and declared this collection is “likely unconstitutional.” Another one said it’s legal “because 9/11.” I saw a post somewhere today asking if we’ve reached the point where anyone spouting “because terrorists” to excuse their overreach can now properly be told “shut the hell up!” I’m thinking we have. In fact, I’m thinking we reached that point a long, long time ago.
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Highlights of 2013: Health

It’s that time when I take stock of the passing year. Kicking off this year’s list is health, both mine and others. I was fortunate again this year that all of my loved ones lived another year. I know I won’t always be able to say this and I know how fortunate I am that I still am graced by the presence of some truly wonderful people.

As for my own health, I began taking it more seriously this year. The new job I took in February and the schedule it required kept me from my daily early-morning dog walks I had enjoyed. I began to miss this simple daily exercise and it soon began to show in my elevated blood pressure. Last winter I had gotten fit enough that I had to take out a few links from my wristwatch to keep it from spinning around my wrist. I was thrilled when I realized that a belt I had last worn a decade ago now fits again.

This progress didn’t last long, though, as the stress of my job and easy access to breakroom snacks led me to mindless snacking at the office. I finally wised up, cut the snacking, cut way back on my beer intake (ooh, that was hard), and cut my weight from 182 pounds earlier this year to 169 pounds Friday morning. This is the first time my weight has dipped below 170 in at least a decade and I couldn’t be happier. I’m even wearing slacks again that last fit me over ten years ago!
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