A little wager

So I bet on the presidential election with one of my friends. We didn't bet on the overall election. I knew Obama would take it (yay!). We bet on five states:

Arizona
Florida
Ohio
Nevada
West Virginia

For every state that went Obama, I won a drink. For every state that won McCain, my friend won a drink.

Don't get me wrong, we were/are both pro-Obama. He was thinking as I did in 2000 and 2004, that fraud would kick in and the Repugnicans would pull something off as they did in Florida in the past. He just wanted booze to dull the pain of disappointment.

Can't say I disagree with that strategy, but I was feeling strongly optimistic.

As of this morning's tally, I believe I get three drinks to his two. Florida, Nevada, and Ohio all went blue (YAY!) while Arizona and West Virginia remained unsurprisingly red (booo!!!!).

It's all good.

Well, that was a hell of a night

I promised myself I wouldn't watch the returns.

And, unsurprisingly, I lied to myself. When I turned everything off last night, Obama was the projected winner and that remained true this morning.

I am very, very happy with that. Eight years of Republican mismanagement is eight years too many, thank you very much. I would've thought people would figure that out back in 2004, but I digress.

I'm surprised, and a bit dismayed, that 52% of voting Californians are bigots and approved Prop 8 (forbidding same-sex marriage). I don't get that. Why would anyone care if a couple of guys or a couple of women decide to tie the knot? What impact does that have on people who aren't the ones getting married?

I'm not gay nor personally inclined towards same-sex pairings, so this doesn't affect me directly, but none the less I find myself offended that so many people feel the need to tromp on the basic right of "pursuit of happiness" for such a large group of people.

Seriously, what the hell?

While that result disappoints me, it's mostly overshadowed by the joy I feel that the Dems took the White House and got greater majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

I know some people are unhappy with one party controlling the Executive and Legislative branches. The Rebubs did a lot of damage while they were in control, after all.

I'm not too concerned. The Dems have proven pretty spineless in keeping Bush in check when they took control of Congress in the last batch of elections. I do hope they're sufficiently galvanized (and, for a change, united) in enacting real reforms in government. In the end, they're all politicians. It's silly to expect too much.

Still, I love being able to say: "President Barak Obama". Who would've thought that day would come? It's pretty cool.

A little warning next time?

Genius, courtesy of yesterday's xkcd.

From zero to crazy

I just looked at my little planner book thing I carry around to try to figure out what the heck I have lined up in the next week or so.

Sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster do I have a lot of things going on through Xmas.

How the hell did that happen?

Ah well. It's not bad to be busy.

Utter horseshit

Lifted from a county website:

---
Why am I always being summoned and others are not?
The selection and management of jurors is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure. By law, potential jurors are selected RANDOMLY from the Registration list and the Department of Motor Vehicles' drivers and identification card holders. If the information you provide to these two sources is not identical you may receive two summonses or you may be summoned more often than others.
---

Two words in reply to this: bull shit.

Just sayin'.

Yes, I'm still angry.

Addendum to Anxiety

Why am I anxious? THIS is why I'm anxious.

How could that not make any sane person anxious?

Also, I'd like California to step up and vote down the bigoted bullshit that is Prop 8, thank you very much. I recently attended a friend's same-sex marriage and I've got several other friends who have followed that route. I really don't want to see their happiness get disrupted and California become a poster-child for the cause of homophobic hate-mongerers.

Besides, all moral issues aside, California's budget issues can only benefit from the added income in the form of marriage licenses.

How did everything get so crazy here?

Election Day Anxiety

It always happens: I get super-anxious on Election Day.

This one is no different. Oh, I already voted. I'm a fan of the absentee ballot. Since then I've been sitting back and watching the news with growing worry.

Presidential politics aside, there's a lot of propositions that interest me as well as other political races. I'm going to try to isolate myself until tomorrow so I can actually sleep tonight without worrying about who is taking over the White House in January.