Facebook Status Update Liveblog

Welcome to the liveblog of the update of my Facebook status.

12:38 AM: My Facebook status now says "Scott Urbanowski is updating his Facebook status."

12:39 AM: I have also tweeted about updating my Facebook status.

12:43 AM: If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out tonight's (Monday night's) edition of The Colbert Report.

12:45 AM: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat sounds good right about now.

Bits of Tid: March 28, 2009

• Just three days before Al Gore's birthday, tonight is Earth Hour! It lasts from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM.
• 
  Find out how you can help.
• Payback.
• Obama is moving at a faster pace than Bush when it comes to filling vacancies for appointed offices.
• UNC, Pitt, Missouri, Louisville.
  

Bits of Tid: March 24, 2009

• Most people aren't blaming Obama or Geithner for the AIG mess.
• Track the progress of President Obama's appointments and promises.
• Big changes are coming to the newspaper scene in Michigan. Yikes.
• From the Detroit Free Press:

  While musicians crooned and strummed Irish music, Gov. Jennifer Granholm paid a visit to a Ferndale coffee shop at 11:30 a.m. today and saw two mammoth attempts under way: One aims to break a Guinness world record for a nonstop performance of live music, the other to get thousands of listeners to sign pledges to buy American-made cars.

• In other news, Granholm joked on Saturday that Sarah Palin "really set back the cause of hot governors."
• Go to Google, enter Find Chuck Norris, and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky."

Barack Hussein Obama: WRONG 15 times in four days!

How can we trust Barack Hussein Obama to be right for our country when he has been wrong on 15 out of 48 first-and second-round picks in this year's NCAA Tournament? Even Scott Urbanowski has been right 40 out of 48 times - and Urb has never played or really cared about basketball!

Anyway, sorry about not announcing my picks for the first two rounds. I went 26 for 32 and 14 for 16, respectively. I'm picking Louisville, Kansas, UConn (original pick: Washington), Missouri, Pittsburgh, Duke, UNC, and Syracuse for the Elite Eight.

Bits O' Tid: March 17, 2009

• I got plenty of pictures and thoughts to share with you on my service trip to Virginia! Meanwhile, here's a tease:
  
  
• My cousin finished third in a statewide free-throw contest for her age group!
• Compliments of Michelle:
• Meanwhile, Jack Cafferty offers some early praise for Michelle's husband:

  While the armchair quarterbacks second guess the new president, he gets up every day and does things, lots of things.

  Whether it's creating commissions for women and girls, ordering the investigation of President Bush's use of signing statements, or jamming a huge stimulus package through Congress, the man is working his tail off. And he seems to be loving every minute of it. It's almost as though our president was born to do exactly what he's doing. He's leading, and boy, is that refreshing.

• Bernie Madoff is more popular than Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.
• What's that big orangish-yellow thing in the sky?

What am I doing for Spring Break?

Well, for the first time ever, I am not going home for Spring Break. Instead, I'll heading to Chippokes Plantation State Park in Virginia this weekend!

With recreational activities and opportunities to look at life in a bygone era, Chippokes Plantation offers something for everyone. A working farm since 1617, visitors may tour an antebellum mansion, stroll through formal gardens, or view a collection of antique farm and forestry equipment and a sawmill exhibit at the Farm and Forestry Museum.

But I'm not just going there for the beauty and history. I'm going there to help preserve the park as part of CMU's Alternative Breaks program. This will be my first weeklong AB, and almost everyone who's been on an AB before said they had a blast!

Says the Virginia Conservation and Rec website:

Chippokes Plantation State Park is one of the oldest working farms in the United States. Chippokes is a living historical exhibit located in a rural agricultural area along the James River in Surry County. In addition, the park has a wide variety of traditional park offerings, including a swimming complex, visitor center, picnic facilities, and hiking and biking trails. The plantation has kept its original boundaries since the 1600s and has a variety of cultivated gardens and native woodland. The formal gardens surrounding the Chippokes Mansion are accented by azaleas, crepe myrtle, boxwood and seasonal flowers. The plantation grounds are also home to the Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum.

Chippokes Plantation State Park is operated by the Department of Conservation and Recreation in cooperation with the Chippokes Plantation Farm Foundation. The Virginia General Assembly created the foundation in 1977 to establish, administer and maintain the model farm. Funding for the foundation comes from farmland rent payments, donations, admissions and gift shop sales.

I will be back on Sunday, the 15th. Then (or shortly thereafter), I will have plenty of pictures to show you!

So look out Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and Bobby Scott... here I come!

Bits of Tid: March 6, 2009

Give Me A (Alternative) Break Edition

• I will be in Virginia in just 48 hours from now, taking part in a park-preservation project through CMU's Alternative Breaks program. More on that later.
  
• Going green saves green, as demonstrated by the Kent County Commission this week!
  
• Do you know who Jocelyn Benson is? She just might be your next Michigan Secretary of State!
  
• America likes Obamanomics better than Reaganomics.
  
• 
  
  The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

  CNBC Gives Financial Advice

  Daily Show Full Episodes
  Important Things With Demetri Martin

  Political Humor
  Joke of the Day

Bits of Vid - That's Vid, not Tid

Who Said It?

It's time to play Who Said It? This is a game in which you match the quote with the person who said it (duh). I plan to make this a regular feature of GLGTGS.

The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests.

Wall Street investors? Bankers and financial executives? Auto company executives? No more than 30 percent have confidence in them. Right now, Americans trust political leaders more than business leaders. That's new and it has consequences.

Now Mr. McCotter — whose suburban district west of Detroit is laced with unemployed autoworkers, shuttered automotive plants and struggling manufacturers — could become a test case of whether House Republicans’ united front against the economic measure was the wise political and policy course.

A voter's personal experience in casting a ballot shapes how they view the entire process. When voters leave a polling place frustrated or confused, it threatens the very confidence and participation that are essential to a healthy democracy.

The Republican Party will be flat on its feet until we actually come up with some bold solutions that are deliverable to real people in real time that they feel strongly about, and we're not there.

Mmmmmmmm... Paczkis!

And here are your choices! If you want to cheat, or if you've already made your guesses and want to see if you're right, click the links. 

1. Jocelyn Benson
   
2. Carl Hulse
   
3. Gov. John Huntsman, R-UT
   
4. Me
   
5. Sen. Dick Lugar, R-IN
   
6. CNN's Bill Schneider

Bits of Tid: February 22, 2009

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• Rosie O'Donnell has filmed a movie in Michigan called America, which deals with a boy caught up in the foster care system. It will be airing this coming Saturday on Lifetime.
• Do Republicans even want to win Michigan anymore? They're going after Congressman Gary Peters because he supports

  "$1 Billion for Advanced Battery Loan Guarantee Program" and "$600 Million for cars for government employees." The fact that Michigan lawmakers of both parties pushed for the advanced battery funding apparently didn't occur to the NRCC. Nor did the fact that those cars for government employees would be build by Michigan-based manufacturers.

• Kwame Kilpatrick and his wife are living an 'absolutely wonderful' life in Dallas. Guess who else is moving into their new Dallas home? Yep, George and Laura Bush.
• Meanwhile, another President, CMU's Michael Rao, is leaving this summer to accept the Presidency of Virginia Commonwealth University.