Whispers in the Windstorm

(More journal entries coming - and they'll be backdated appropriately.)

This morning's been pretty icky. I woke up pretty darn tired, but at least it was still 7:30. So I showered and dressed, got a bag so I could easily unload the car this evening in prep for its trip to the shop tomorrow evening, and drove here. I had been seeing a few signs up on Dundee saying that there was going to be construction there, but it kind of looked like it was going to be a brief thing on a weekend, lasting maybe a day. But the sign went up today that read, "Road will be closed for 9 days." That's gonna suck. I'm already tired, and now they're telling me I have to take Route 22 to work? (And for those who know the area and suggest Lake-Cook - get real. Where do you think all the Dundee traffic is going? And, of course, listening to all the rather annoying commentary on the election. As someone who supports Kerry and positively loathes Bush - it's over. Even if Kerry somehow miraculously carries Ohio - AND we throw Nader's votes at him for good measure - Bush's margin in the popular vote is way over three million. Kerry's deficit in Ohio is 136,221, and Nader got 390,536. That means that if you assume Kerry takes all the votes in Ohio needed to win plus Nader's - Bush still wins by just under three million. And didn't the Democrats say four years ago that the popular vote was where it's at, and what we should be listening to? Won't they be hypocrites if they fight to take Ohio and win, still down in the popular vote by about a 2% margin.

It's over, folks - even if Kerry pulls it out. Kerry has successfully demonstrated, as have so many others, that a political campaign based near-entirely on anger and criticism, no matter how well-justified, is doomed to failure - and, perhaps, rightfully so.

Eat Snacky Smores - and lots of 'em.

Tuesday was pretty nice. I started the day with five to six hours' sleep after pulling an all-nighter Sunday night. Dad and I were voting together, and he was kind enough to drive me over. Voting was quick and painless - but I was somewhat perplexed that there were no resolutions, initiatives, millages, or anything that wasn't 'pick a name'. Dad thought there was going to be some sort of rural firefighter initiative - but apparently our district isn't being asked to pay for it. Hmmmm. And there were two judgeships (which I'm really not sure we should be voting on) in which the Republican was running unopposed. Sheesh. Anyway, Dad and I had a vigorous political discussion all morning. Mom hates what I refer to as "animated discussions" and what she calls "just shouting" (but it isn't, really - she just doesn't like raised voices), and she was just as happy to see us leave. :) After voting, Dad drove me up the street to Starbucks' - peppermint latte and a orange-cranberry muffin. Nummy. Then he dropped me off at home and I drove to work - getting there early in I don't know HOW long. Gotta try to do that more often.

Work was somewhat energized, even if it was only page-counting, really. I took some pictures of my workload, and I plan to create a photo album showing exactly what kind of workload it is, and how much of an endless river it'll be. (Sigh - I'm alternating between writing this and counting pages right now.) But I let the trash can pile up higher than I've ever done before, just to be silly. I also got absolute CRAP done in terms of sorting my LOTR Shadows stuff, or deckbuilding with it. So I piled it into the car again and drove home as soon as I could. I finished A Bad Place - pretty good, actually, even if a somewhat sedentary epilogue. I got home, sat down in front of my PC, talked to Myra and chatted with Matt a bit, and then pulled up my LOTR database to get cracking on deckbuilding. And it was only then that I realized that my LOTR database still has around 100+ holes in it, as I'm typing information only as the cards get posted on Decipher, so that I can keep my records current as to the weblink of the picture. So - no Shadows deckbuilding for me. :( I decided that I still had some time, so I booted up Deus Ex again (and a shout out to Al Schaefer who reminded me how good it was), and I played the training level. Unfortunately, the last exercise was to get by a patrol bot and through to a door. I decided to simply throw a crate of TNT at the bot, which did two things. A) it blew my legs off, so I couldn't run or jump any more, and B) I only found out later that it set off an alarm that locked the door. So I spent around a half hour, slowly walking around, only to give up. I hate that. I grabbed my Shadows, my decks, my site box, and a spare two-lane box, and drove out to Rob's place.

LOTR was a little annoying, but all right. Rob is a rather rabid Bush supporter (which even now I still don't even comprehend, really - but that's probably part of the fabric of the cloak that's being draped over Kerry's campaign even as we speak), so it was disconcerting to hear him cheer things I was inclined to boo. But I decided to spend my time getting Shadows in order, as I could give commons to Brian, Charlie and Rob and some uncommons to Brian. (Along with the four uncommon sites.) I actually finished sorting, winnowing and filing JUST as the evening was drawing to a close (so no actual GAMES), and we sat and watched news for a few minutes. It amazes me to some extent that most networks were displaying the totals of the states they'd called already - and then displaying the individual states on a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen; even the one's they'd already called. I mean - if I'm watching the news, and it's 200-200, do I really need to know that Kansas was already decided? I think the most useful information would simply be reporting the current margins in undecided states, and races that haven't been resolved. (Perhaps breaking in once every ten minutes to report won senatorial and gubernatorial races would be reasonable.) But we left Rob's, and Brian said that he was more into LOTR now that Ken is expressing greater interest - always a good thing. Brian was considering not playing next week, but given that Ken's interested in playing, and Rob's on vacation - it made for a winning combo, apparently. Yayyy! So I drove home, getting home around 12:30AM, and decided to play through the intro to Deus Ex again.

This time, I ran by the bot, crept up to the bridge and keyed in the activation code, and slipped through. (It also took me precisely one try to run the stealth test, as opposed to ten or so the first time. I wish they'd give you a zapper for that one, though - so much easier. :) I then decided to play the main game. I got caught up in it, and I was almost halfway down the Statue of Liberty when I died - without saving. SIGH. I'm gonna see if I can afford Master Sniper next time I start - the middle ranking just isn't cutting it. I have to get too close to snipe - I'm still a little agog that at some points, it was sensible to switch from the sniper rifle to the zapper - a melee weapon. That's not right. I finally decided to get some sleep, after chatting a little bit with Karen. (Hope you feel better! Drink citrus tea and play KOTOR!)

Oh, and I got a sticker when I voted. It says "Proud to Vote", and I put it on my wallet.

Eat Snacky Smores.

But sometimes we'd rather not have done. In other words, I'm a little tired.

Yesterday. Work was light on Columbus Day, but more people were here than I might have expected, given that schools are also out. Maybe all the parents here had their partners stay home - I don't know. But it was odd. It was more odd that they were here on October 11th, 4 days before the deadline, and so little got done. Thursday is starting to look pretty scary. ;)

I had nicely long email/PM conversations with several people, and I brought my LOTR Access database up to speed with around six to eight of the new spoilers. (I'm beginning to suspect that "archer" as a keyword on the Free Peoples' side might be over with, as 'ally' has been generally retired. BOTH versions of Legolas out of Shadows lack this important keyword that he has never lacked before.) I also got two more people to post on the Who Are All These Fine People thread - and that was a chain, as I only asked one! Whoo-hoo! Give it up for peer pressure!

After work, I drove out to Games Plus, looking for some items friends asked me to look out for at the auction. No luck. Wahhh. Maybe I'll find them somewhere else. (Reminds me - alt-tabbing to write a letter, back soon.)

Anyway. Went from there to Mike's house. Sebastian showed up soon enough, and we chatted amiably for quite some time. (Not to mention Natalie's wonderful a$$ cookies - I *must* ask what they were for.) But as it became clear that we weren't going to see Ernie, and therefore wouldn't be playing EQRPG, we started talking Bush/Kerry. Sebastian and Mike seem to be some of the ONLY gamers I know who support Bush. Sebastian is just a social conservative/Darwinist - I became more convinced during our argument that Bush could have been found to have killed his parents and he'd still vote for the Republican. Mike actually presented a cogent argument for electing Bush - he continues to impress me, even though he is pure evil. But the argument is that Bush's experience is more management and team-oriented, whereas Kerry is more a doer and an active participant. Such a quarterback might be unused to either handing off the ball or letting the coach call in the plays as needed - which would be fine if we trusted him in all arenas of national and international politics, but if we believe he needs advisors, he might not be relied upon to listen to them. I used a classic Socratic, lead-them-into-contradiction technique, and had Sebastian call Iraq both "a war" and "not a war". He quickly clarified each wording, but I pointed out to him that the GOP's chief complaint against Kerry - that he is wishy-washy - can emerge from similar situations. Nobody moved in viewpoint - that so rarely happens in political discourse as to have an accompaniment from the Vienna Boys' Choir when it does - but it was educational, I think. Then we called it a night and I drove home.

Dad was asleep, brief words with Mom. Once again forgot to deposit my check - it's to my right now, but unendorsed. Went upstairs and launched AIM. Chatted with Matt about new LOTR spoilers and a nice development in his future. Chatted with Selyna about...well, go read her journal. Chatted about sleeplessness and pink elephants. Then, I got Matt's script working - YAYYY! Harvested around 200 or so messages while I chatted. I could have spent TODAY doing that, but it's nice to have gotten it out of the way. Mad props to the codemaster. Slept.

Morning goes as all mornings go, but traffic was annoyingly stop-start. I want to either DRIVE when I'm in the car, or be so blocked that I can read. This whole drive-ten-feet-wait-fifteen-seconds crap drives me up the wall. But I got here, I've got a few bits of work that wonderful people gave me last evening at 5:20, and things are going well.

Eat Snacky Smores.

This was originally posted by me to a private mailing list I'm a part of. But it is as eloquent an expression as I can muster of my feelings in this election season, so it's appropriate to post it here. And if I were being thorough, I'd link each point to a news site. If you got the links, post them as comments and I'll integrate them into the rant.

I'm going to post only once on the whole election topic, as I need to maintain my lurker stance. But I'm gonna rant as only a hardcore cynic can rant.

Over the last twenty years, politics and marketing have become increasingly blended - the rise of the spin doctor has created a lack of clarity in today's society. Any given image can be spun or interpreted to the benefit of either side of a disagreement. Any statistic can be equally spun. It's close to the point where FACTS can be spun as desired. And the sheer amount of news each day means that if someone is to even attempt to maintain their status as well-informed, they will have to rely on at least some spin in order to avoid having to individually review every fact as it comes in. And this is well-known to those who spin.

So as a result, I'm pretty sure that everything we hear and see in every media outlet and (for those of us who happen to go) directly from most politicians and experts is pure crap. People say what they want to get other people to believe in their cause. A difference in wording in one sentence of one question of a poll can completely transform the results, depending on how one wants the results to go. Nothing can be trusted. So I've found it exceptionally difficult to work up a concern for politics, because I'd pretty much have to go to the Columbia School of Journalism first, and then it would pretty much be my life's work to verify statements as they came in. For a situation that never seemed to really change depending on who was driving, I was reluctant to commit to any of that.

But Dubya has driven me to do something I never thought I would. Around four months ago, I registered to vote, for the first time ever.

Iraq never did anything to us. The good guys don't punch first.

France and Germany knew we were being belligerent, and told us so. We ignored them. The good guys talk to everyone, and make sure there's dire need before committing troops.

Haliburton has been one of the main beneficiaries of post-war reconstruction. Cheney's Haliburton. And there are already allegations of corruption. (I personally thought that they'd be a little more sneaky about it, and that we might not have found out as fast.)

White House lawyers spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how we could explain away torturing Iraqis and other captives. The good guys don't torture anyone.

Our civil liberties are being eroded, and it has all the stain of being just as much the government's attempts to be nosy as to protect us from domestic terrorists. Librarians are protesting the Patriot Act. The good guys don't act against librarians.

Bush has answered almost every comment about negative economic performance with 'tax cut'. It's like it's written on a flash card under his tie. And tax cuts benefit the wealthier more than the poor, as they are paying larger amounts of tax. (And sure, go ahead and discuss whether or not it's better that the rich get $50,000 back so that the poor get at least $100 back. I'll lurk through it.) The good guys pay their share.

Cheney is (I believe) still fighting to keep secret the minutes of meetings he held with executives of Enron and other energy companies, meetings held well before California's energy crisis and the collapse of Enron. The good guys don't keep secrets unless they have to. (I do suspect that Cheney feels he has to keep secret the minutes of his meetings, but I don't think he has anything but self-interest in mind when he makes that choice.)

And deep in my heart, I just can't get over the idea that Daddy Bush is in the background, finishing the war he started and avenging his loss at the polls. It's one of the only explanations for the war in Iraq that hasn't been blown away by investigations.

For 16 years, I've been content to let the political car that is America drive in the left or the right lane as the passengers wanted. We were always going down the road anyway, and it didn't seem to make a difference.

But now, as the car bumps over rough unpaved terrain, spins its wheels against mudpatches and (dare I say it) quagmires, and threatens to run over people on foot, I'm going to put my one hand on the wheel, just so I made sure that I at least tried.

I can't say that I know a lot about John Kerry yet. But unless he's a devil-worshiper who regularly pan-fries kittens, I think he's gotta be better than the driver we've got right now.

/rant=off.
/lurk=on.