atomicthoughts.com

One of the problems with the electoral college is that it can disenfranchise voters. A friend was telling me about a phone conversation he overheard waiting at the polling place. “I don’t know why I even bother, it’s a red state anyway” she said. It’s pretty damn ignorant to think the only thing you’re voting for is President, but I certainly didn’t care about the school board elections when I was 20.

And that damn electoral map is psychologically divisive. Every time they threw it up on CNN I’m thinking, “Holy crap, the whole country is red!”. But it’s not remotely all read. The “whole country” isn’t one of anything. You’re just as likely to meet someone who supports the other guy as your guy, nationally speaking.

Some dude on CNN pointed out at that this is the first president since 1988 who won at least half of the popular vote. The last 3 elections have all been decided by majorities, but not “half of america”.

That Kerry called to concede is the best news I’ve heard in the last 2 days. Let’s move on.

3 Tbs (45 ml) butter or chicken fat
1-2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock or water
1 cup (250 ml) roasted buckwheat*
6 oz (175 g) bow-tie pasta (farfel), cooked according to
package directions and drained
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Sex in the City? Sopranos? Six Feet Under? An undoubtedly fine and alliterative body of work for HBO. But their best effort, a ground breaking tale of small things and plastic, is now available on DVD. Get your copy of Fraggle Rock today.

Last weekend the kids and I took a little road trip. On the way back while they were sleeping I listened to Graceland in it’s entirey, as I had many times before. As I was listening, I was writing a blog entry in my head, a nice flashback piece about how it was the first Album I ever really wanted.

But now it’s all gone to hell. I wanted and got that album during an ill-fated trip to California with my grandparents. I thought that trip was during the summer I turned 13. Graceland was released in the fall of ’86, so by that measure it would have been the summer I turned 15. I was pretty damn sure I was 13 at the time though; I remember being miserable the day before going to Disneyland because it was becoming a teenager and my mom wasn’t there.

So was the birthday memorable for becoming a teen or for some other reason that escapes me? Was it really Graceland I craved or some other album? I can so clearly remember going to a strip mall and buying that cassette, but maybe that wasn’t in California? I’m so confused now. Time has lost all meaning!

It’s been a while since I’ve so thoroughly blown off a day of work. Apart from answering a few emails, nothing constructive happened today. But if you have any questions about modding the xbox I might be able to help you. Or maybe you would like a review of the Gush IM/RSS client.

This is probably the result of burning the candle too bright at both ends of my job duties. Gotta get my head back in the game though.

This town needs a “I don’t give a crap about the interstate I just want to get to the other side of it” road.

We now have a shed in the back yard, and the lumber for the new gate. The shed took 5 times as long to set up as I thought, and is quite a bit shorter than anticipated. Still, it was fun to put up and will give us some much needed storage.

Of course, it has sparked 2 more jobs to add to the list. I want to build a small enclosure on one side of the shed to store the garbage can in and a few things. On the other side we’re going to put on a tarp and connect it to a trellis. The bikes and trailer will go under the tarp, mostly to protect from the sun.

I have lots of weekend projects ahead of me.

Finally a meme I can get behind. I’m not sure how many more web tests I can take. Next up, “Which breed of European Catfish are you?”

Name a CD you own that no one else on your friends list does. Probably 10 or 20 Prince CD’s I have. :) But I’ll go with the classic Cool as Ice, the soundtrack to the wildly unappreciated Vanilla Ice movie.

Name a book you own that no one else on your friends list does. Tough one. We have a ton of books, but so do my friends. Let’s go with one of the countless books picked up from the bargain table: All There is to Know: Readings from the Illustrious Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no one else on your friends list does. While someone out there might have a copy of Cinema Paradiso (Director’s Cut), I’m relatively confident no one picked up Prince, Live at the Aladdin. Amazing music and one of the worst DVD’s ever produced.

Name a place that you have visited that no one else on your friends list has.Rollag, MN. Not only a place no one has been to, but I bet an event no one has been to, a steam threshing reunion.

I passed in front of an ambulance today while walking to work. On the front of the hood it said “AMBULANCE” in reverse lettering (like this) that would read correctly in your rear view mirror.

“Cool idea”, I thought. Then I began to wonder about the point. A loud siren is blaring behind you. There are lights flashing. A big red truck the size of a small house is riding on your ass. You look in the rear view mirror and see the words “Ambulance” and that’s the final straw to get your ass out the way?

Of all the fruit and vegetable flavored breads, pumpkin is the finest.