Election Commentary

I haven't really said much about the election, since there are so many others who state my feelings much more eloquently then I could. But I can't resist this. The weather saturday was incredible - almost 70 degrees - can't beat that in November in Minnesota! Brian, CB, and I road the Theodore Wirth loop in reverse, so we crossed the Stone Arch from west to east and headed north up the river through St. Anthony Main, where I snapped this photo. Seems somewhat appropriate given the election debacle. Anyone know the history of this? It could be there from the Clinton, or even Nixon era for all I know ...

Man, my dreams are messed up

I've had two really weird dreams recently. Usually I don't remember my dreams, unless they occur in the morning when I've already woken up at least once and am dozing more than sleeping.

I really only remember snippets of these, but here they are ...

I dreamt this idea that someone needs to make a movie which would be in black and white, with no soundtrack or voices at most times ... only when Britney Spears quotes scripture would there be sound or color.

In a separate dream, I dreamt that I'm on the peak of a rooftop. There's a small pug dog up there. There's also another small dog. It's not a pug, but it's trying to mount the pug. The pug isn't having it, so it tries to pull away, but loses it's footing on the roof slope, slides down and goes over the edge.

I don't know what these mean, and I'm not sure I want to know either.

War in my condo

I spent a little time tidying up my place last night. There appears to be a small-scale war being waged between the spiders and millipedes. Judging by the number of millipede carcasses I vacuumed up, I'd say the spiders are winning.

Diebold

Went down to the fitness center over lunch, hoping to forget about the election for a spell. Hopes were dashed since the Kerry/Edwards concession speech was on the fitness center TVs. Gracious speech, for what that's worth. I can only hope that the Dem's plan is to concede graciously, while working like hell to investigate any and all reports of election fraud in key states. Then again, with the newfangled electronic voting machines with no paper trail, would we ever know? Thanks a lot, Diebold. Bastards.

My friend CB and I both came to the same conclusion separately ... Minnesota's optical scan system is THE perfect voting system. Electronic tallying and reporting of votes, with a paper trail generated by the voter which could be recounted later (by hand, if necessary). Why on earth is the government paying Diebold (who's CEO is on the record as saying he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president") to design a new electronic voting system when the optical scan system has been in use for years and is perfect?

Back at my desk, I was trying to listen to music while working on my PL/SQL coding, but my CD selection at work is limited. I picked up three used discs last night. Portishead just wasn't doing it - I'm already too moody today. Massive Attack wasn't cutting it either. Metallica seems to be doing the trick - I finally got a "real" version of their live S&M disc, since some of the tracks on my dubbed copy refuse to play correctly. Hopefully now, with proper tunes, I'll stop surfing around the political blog sites and instead get some work done this afternoon.

Frick's Costume

Lion-O from Thundercats. My brother's costume. It's entirely homemade and totally over the top. The sword has a button on it to make it lengthen and double in size, just like in the cartoon. Way to go, Frick.

Halloween '04

Left to right: PlaidMan, Fried Egg, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Shawn of the Dead, Guerilla Marketing.

And for reference, here's a link to the guy I'm dressed up as.