Reading: The Sky People by SM Stirling
Music: Marc Bernier's CD - Always Welcome
TV/Movie: The New Red Green Show
Link o' the Day: Horrow Writers Association Writing Tips page

Ever try to stuff three hundred bees into an empty champagne bottle? Neither have I.

But I imagine that trying to empty the bottle would be something like I'm going through now--but substitute bees with ideas, comments, thoughts, musings, celebrations, and rants regarding the recent elections. And the opening of the champagne bottle is my damn mortal fingers what can'ts type fast or long enough.

And then I just want to take a nap.

So I'm going to just make a couple of short observations and move along...

1. Yes, this was a huge, HUGE victory for black America. Incredibly so. And it's a victory for all Americans. Obama's acceptance speech was one of the greatest bits of public speaking I've ever heard. I understand how that audience must have felt.

Yes, many people voted for Obama just because he's black. Many voted, in their minds, for Obama despite his blackness. I think most voted for Obama because he represents real change and hope for this country after eight very bleak years. To steal a line from Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare is finally over. And to steal some words from Martin Luther King Jr., we elected a man not for the color of his skin, but the content of his character.

2. If you ever feel like your vote doesn't count, or that it doesn't make a difference, or that the system is all a sham--take a day to work the polls. It's a long grueling day that can last 20 hours dealing with the public, bureacracy, paperwork, arcane rules and such, but it does give you a much greater appreciation for the vote and the process. If you see some of the decisions that go into the process--decisions that seem to be needlessly complex, then understand that it's so that each ballot is impeccable in its validity. Sure, problems happen. Machines jam. Some poll workers don't pay attention during the training, but for the most part, I saw it to be a system that works.

Even though I was essentially useless the day after Election Day, I will do this again.

3. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert should each receive the Congressional Medal of Freedom for getting us all through this long, grueling election season.

Okay, there's more, but I promised I wouldn't take up so much space here on these topics. Suffice to say that I'm very happy.

And yes, I am going into a little bit of withdrawal. Looks like I'm not alone:



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Oh crap... one other thing...

Last night, Pretty Maggie and I went out to dinner with friends of ours. These friends, another couple, are folks we enjoy all sorts of conversations with. Arts. Literature. Politics. Technology. Godzilla movies. Religion. Cats. You know--that kind of thing. It's one of the cornerstones of our friendship. And politically, while they aren't opposite from us, they're at the very least perpendicular.

So I had to wonder...would dinner devolve into a poli-chat nightmare? Would our giddiness and, yes--smugness, sour those perfectly wonderful Red Robin burgers and bottomless fries? So I said, says I, "I promise I won't be the one who brings up the elections first." And Pretty Maggie says, she said, "Neither will I."

And no one did.

No one.

It was as if we went from November 3rd to November 5th with nae in between. Spooky. Pretty Maggie even dropped an oblique, but clear opening...no bites. It was a perfectly lovely evening. But...but it was like biting into a wedge of sharp provolone cheese and discovering that it was really a very mild house cheddar. Something was missing. Our politcal conversations are rarely nasty. If anything, they're the most civil and challenging discussions we have with any of our friends.

But now the gauntlet has been thrown. We didn't bring the elections up. They didn't bring the elections up.

How long can this go on?

Stay tuned.

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Hey all you writers out there--particularly you spooky ones. Today's link goes to the Horrow Writers Association Writing Tips page. There are a couple of interesting articles there and worth paging through. Much of this can apply to any writer--any genre or none at all.

Cheers!