As Dinah Washington sings...

...What a Difference a Day Makes...

So it's looking like people listened and went out a voted. I was surprisingly impressed by the election results, and a seeming surge in Democrats (notwithstanding recounts, legal action, etc.) It seems that in spite of reported Conservative efforts to @#$% with the process and legal polling, people got out and voted (and as some people pointed out it was even raining here in Northern VA...)

I am totally disappointed in Virginia's response to Question 1. I was IMing with Mr. Huge about it yesterday and as I believe he said, it's disgraceful. I challenge anyone to say how passing this did anything other than set us backwards. I'm not a lawyer, but I hope this is being challenged somehow someway. (I take a very minor amount of solace in the fact that Northern VA -- and my town in particular -- was overwhelmingly - 2 to 1 or more - against passing the amendment. It doesn't change the feeling I have that I need to apologize for 57% of my adopted state).

All this and Britney filed for divorce AND Rumsfeld stepped down -- another example of Republicans living in their own little fantasy world... if you wanted a scapegoat and to take value from having a scapegoat, wouldn't it have been better if he resigned LAST week. But no, they just refuse to accept the premise of reality it seems (actually, that also applies to what I said above about VA...)

Meanwhile, in personal news, I'm still in training. You know how a sponge can soak up a certain amount of liquid and then anything else one tries to soak up doesn't go in -- I believe that's called saturation -- well, if you replace "sponge" with "brain" and "liquid" with "information" and you kinda have my status right now.

Anyway, I know there was other stuff I wanted to talk about -- probably even a main reason I thought, "Oh, I should blog during lunch break," but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was. So, more later...

Don't forget to vote...

I know I said this yesterday, but I once again wanted to emphasize the importance of voting -- preferrably to change the current course of the nation -- but voting in any event.

If you have questions about how to vote or where to vote the League of Women Voters has an excellent site that gives you all in the info you might need.

And again, if you feel the urge to help out, might I suggest (again):

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In other news, the new job is going well (in so far as I can tell), although I am in training all week this on the Plateau software. (Have I mentioned the name of the company? I don't even remember... I'm working for Plateau Systems, Ltd.) And as I said, so far so good. Everyone has seemed very nice. There is some (organized) chaos since the company just moved to a new building, which when they told me they were doing that... well, let's just say, I didn't realize they meant, a NEW building. Like the building is still being built... as in the two floors the company occupies are not finished, and the whole place smells of new paint, wallpaper glue, carpet glue, etc., etc. And like I said, I'm enjoying it so far.

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Well, all for now (and TV post coming soon!), in the meantime, VOTE early, VOTE often! Or something like that.

More important than TV?

So I've been meaning to write an updated post on the Fall TV season... (which I believe I referred to before). Plus, I figure some people might be interested in knowing how the first week at the new job went (short answer: pretty well). But before I get to either of those things, I thought I should talk for a minute about Election Day, which is coming up next Tuesday (11/5).

Now I was raised to believe that voting is not just a right I possess as a citizen of the USA (and a right, I may add, that many men and women far braver than I gave their lives defending in years past), but also a responsibility. Which is to say, a right only matters if you exercise it every now and again. It's important that you get out there and vote.

Normally, I stop there. I just encourage people to engage in the electoral process and let them vote their conscience. And if you don't want to read anything political, stop here, and just make sure you vote on Tuesday.

This year, however, I feel it's a little too important not to at least mention my thoughts on the subject. The bottom line is many of us (and by us I mean nearly all of my family and friends) feel that we've been in an increasing bad situation vis-a-vis our government and its decisions and its decision-makers ("deciders," if you will). And the beauty of it is, in this country, we get a chance to tell people, "Yeah, this just isn't working for me, so we're going to try something else."

Ultimately, this year voter turnout (and, in particular, Democratic voter turnout) matters big-time. Many races will be decided by just hundreds of votes—and those races will determine the future of Congress.

MoveOn's Call for Change program allows people with busy lives to spend as little as 15 minutes mobilizing voters in key races from their home computer and phone.

There's been lots of attempts (and likely they'll continue) to energize the conservative "base" -- that's one thing the right is very good at. Let's not sit idly by and let another election go to the dogs (and by that I mean no disrespect to our canine friends out there....)

Thank you for reading, and I think I'll leave you with a quote from Teddy "Carry a Big Stick" Roosevelt that I came across recently at an island we have down here named for the former President:

"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy." — Theodore Roosevelt