See this fork going into my Models exam? It is done! Didn't take all week -- thankfully -- but it sure did feel like it at times. Here's to hoping the returning score is a good one.

The week is winding down nicely. After the political non-upheaval early on things have settled around here. The big questions of today have been, "Is Arafat dead yet?" and "Where is the normal Friday car chase on Fox News?" Just doesn't feel like a Friday without seeing some suspect slung onto the pavement after 45 minutes of suspense.

Before getting home last night I made a stop off at the newest tribute to capitalism. "Blasting away of a hilltop" is accurate, because now it feels like a mesa. Except with lots of neon and tungsten to make your skin eerie colors.

The first real chills of the season snuck in last night, under clouds that looked like someone smeared charcoal across the sky. I didn't buy anything -- nothing on sale captured the eye -- and couldn't even putt at the sporting good store's make believe putting green. Some old guy wouldn't leave it alone. Sadly both the rock climbing and the driving range were also shut down. And I so desperately wanted to "play ball in the house." Surely the Republicans are to blame. Oh wait, white trash living out in the sticks ... slack-jaw ... bigots. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Friends, I give you something so aptly subtitled The unteachable ignorance of the red states.

Didn't we all want help, or hope, or whatever was being promised at the moment, to be on the way? Funny thing is, the help or hope or the great big Whatever that we wanted were different things. But, millions of people have been waking up in "ignorance" all week.

Let's leave it to the "naive and stupid" to remember the vitriol from the ... ahem ... kinder, gentler, party of the people.

"Wasn't it a few years ago that everyone was complaining about the GOP being the inaccessible party, the one who had no connection to the people?"

Glad you asked that question; believe it or not, someone did. Mark Hasty beat me to the answer. Read the whole thing, insightful stuff from an insightful man. The only thing lacking from his study of 16 years of policy is pointing out that the President today often speaks better Spanish than he does English.

This is about populism and common thought at the instinctive, kitchen table level. Democrats used to be populists, but the GOP grew into it, populism has outgrown the Dems while they've been stuck in the 60s for the last 40 years. "Reporting for duty," anyone? (There is an argument that Senator Kerry is the closing bookend on that generation as a way of thought.)

We are They and the Democratic party hasn't seen it.

So I, the stupid slack-jawed man of poverty, am now taking the weekend off. That's right, I'll be leaving my higher education and the quiet affluence of my middle-class suburb behind to go SCUBA diving for two days.

Stupid, canceled by higher education. Poverty, canceled by affluent suburb. SCUBA diving to point out how bad off I am. Check.

Thursday, November 4, 2004

His end all but here, Yassir Arafat ... we felt we knew ye too well. May your eternal fate be better than you deserve. May all of the innocent peoples in your part of the world find a peace that you helped prevent.

# posted by Kenny 

Heard Zig Zag talking about this yesterday. I was considering supporting arguments this morning and then found this story:

If Tuesday's election returns were a bitter pill for Democrats nationally, they were pure poison for Democrats in the South. Five formerly Democratic U.S. Senate seats were up for grabs. Republicans swept them all.

...

From North Carolina to Louisiana, Tuesday's returns may have also dealt a lasting blow to Democrats' efforts to stay competitive in the region. Of the 22 Senate seats located in the states of the Old Confederacy, Republicans will now hold a historically unprecedented 18, said Earl Black, an expert on Southern politics at Rice University in Houston.

...

In Alabama, the party has already struggled at times to find credible candidates for state and federal offices. On Tuesday's ballot, the re-election of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, to a fourth six-year term was no surprise. But Democrats lost all three state Supreme Court races, meaning that the high court will be entirely Republican for the first time since Reconstruction. Democrats also didn't come close to regaining any of the five congressional seats held by GOP officeholders.

The most telling defeat came in east-central Alabama, where freshman U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Anniston, skated to a second term in a district drawn to elect a Democrat.

The 3rd district seat hasn't been occupied by a Democrat since Dr. Glen Browder left in 1997.

The story warns of a continual decline of the Democrat party in the state legislature. The one body of the government to remain a Democrat stronghold, numbers have been on the decline there over the last decade.

Policies and the public politick are changing; there is a strong sense that the Democrats may now move further away from the moderate vote.

# posted by Kenny 

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

It is amazing how quickly the mind can adjust, learn or unlearn something. Felt like I was at work for 20 minutes today. Forgot to eat lunch and everything. This happens when you have the opportunity to make fun of geopolitics all day. (Google up your own real stories and satire, plenty around today.) Makes me remember how quickly the days used to go.

Take a moment, and think about this: imagine if we ran a campaign or -- dare I say it? -- our nation with the sort of feelings laid bare in the concession and acceptance speeches today:

Don't lose faith; what you did made a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference another day ... But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up as Americans ... I saw in them the truth that America is not only great, but it is good.

And then after an eloquent, though long, address by Senator Kerry, comes President Bush:

Reaching these goals will require the broad support of Americans. So today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation. We have one country, one Constitution, and one future that binds us.

If only these sentiments would hold out -- on both sides -- for longer than this rainfall.

Before the rains came in heralding tonight's cold front the sun was breaking through. Big creamy layers of UV punching holes in dark, bullyish clouds. When it hasn't been raining today, it has been rainforest-steamy. Just the way we like it. Keeps the ... interlopers out.

By the way, if you search on dictionary.com for "coldfront" it asks you, "Did you mean girlfriend?" Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Something else realized: Artists who take pride in their artistic integrity shouldn't allow their songs to become Muzak. With or Without You means many things to many people -- brooding introspection, desperate realization, finite resignation -- but it does not mean easy listening at Stein Mart. Et tu Bono?

Three days late -- What? Election and school stuff aren't good excuses? -- there are now 46 new images on the picture page. You can thank me later for putting them in their own group. These pictures make up the last half of the month, including a trip to Nashville, another to Auburn, a massive truck fire and more. Not included are the separately published bridge out pictures. Sorry for the bulk, but with the digital camera temporarily down these may (or may not) be all you get from me for a while.

Dear readers, friends, I need your help. Saw a friend of the family this afternoon, her son has the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a trip to Australia next summer. To be a part of People to People is an honor that comes to very few (the selection process is quite rigorous I understand). And simply put, to have this opportunity it would be criminal to miss out on the experience for a lack of funds.

The Good News: I'm not asking for your money. The Bad News: I am asking for a little of your brainpower and an Email. Send me any and all ideas for successful fundraisers that might fit the bill. In this way, please help me help a deserving young man.

# posted by Kenny 

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

What? You wanted to know what I got from the library today?

Alright then. First there was Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Matchbox Twenty and R.E.M. Pile on with a little U2, John Prine and Sinatra.

And, for the drive Friday evening, I picked up a little bit of Cronkite.

# posted by Kenny 

Today I left work to fulfill my civic duty. I put money in the bank, visited the library and paid the car insurance.

I also spoke to a kind old gentleman who gave me a little sticker, just for sliding a piece of paper into a machine. After I voted I talked to the deputy sheriff who's always on hand at our modest little polling place. He said that this had been the slowest moment of the day, yet I'd never seen it so crowded. The machine that ate my ballot called me voter "1910." There were two other machines on hand for this quiet little community. We truly turned out.

For the past hour I've been trying to decide when I've been more proud. They broke up the voters into four lines by alphabet, with two lines snaking around and through and out of the gym. I sat down to vote -- for the first time with our soldiers at war -- and was more awed by this election than by any previous fill-in-the-bubble moment.

Armed with any sense of history, you have to be thankful of all that makes a simple day like today so beautiful. The blue sky was brushed into fading clouds so fine that the sky was a perfect quicksilver. Fitting for a day that we've learned to take for granted, yet would fight most desperately to preserve. It has been said by more wise and eloquent writers, but needs to be repeated continuously, this opportunity cannot be overstated.

Turn away -- for a moment -- from the dirty pool of a negative campaign and look at the positives of the day.

A degree removed from whom will serve as President, the nation has wondered about potential terrorist attacks slated for today. Thousands of people in this one insignificant community, along with millions and millions of others across the nation, stood in defiance of that threat. The government has been bracing for months, particularly after the dreadful attacks in Spain, but our courage would not be bent or frayed. For our own varied political reasons, we strode in: young and old. We the ordinary, the prosperous, the powerful, the United.

# posted by Kenny 

I'm getting conspired against at work. On Tuesday we pick the next weekend's underdog game. When it came my turn to pick I seized on a good one -- I won't bore you with further details -- but "Nooooooooo; it's a typo!" Apparently the rules we spelled out at the beginning of the season don't mean a lot three quarters of the way through.

Typical. Just scared I might win. OK, with that pick I would have easily won the season, but I had to put up a good fuss. Such is the chore of those appreciating the fine art of antagonism.

# posted by Kenny 

Been missing the dry wit this morning? Cruise on over to Fear, Folly, Politics, where I'm sparingly blogging about this election/voting thing.

Rained on the way to work and most of the morning after that. Now the sky is some sickly cotton-candy blue color. Looks like a bad matte painting from a movie. Or one of those movies that Ted Turner colorized.

At 10:45 this morning, the sales guys were already wandering over, "Heard anything about the numbers yet?" Treated with the proper disdain early on, this question is asked only once.

# posted by Kenny 

Ralph Nader, to virtually no fanfare, was in town last week. We were discussing his appearance with one of our interns, who covered the story for the school paper. We asked about the turnout for his speaking engagement, whereupon she unleashed the best lead ever: "They looked like a bunch of Widespread Panic fans that had nowhere else to go."

That's why our interns are the coolest.

# posted by Kenny 

Monday, November 1, 2004

I have a friend -- alright, a couple -- who spend a lot of time being negative about whatever comes to mind. Tonight would be one of those nights, but this was never intended to be a forum of griping.

Maybe I'm just tired. Yeah, its the clock changes. Got dark too early. On the upside, it was daylight on the way to work. Of course it was one of those days where the sun is selfish and lazy and never really comes up, choosing instead to appear halfway through its daily sojourn across the sky. Definitely the clocks.

Has nothing to do with a class. For the second time since classes began, though, I half-wonder why I came back. The first time was just the other night, while trying to do the last minute studying for the midterm. Today's half-thought has to do with a lackadaisical lack of direction in my Effects class. Maybe it is just my perception, but that's how I perceive it, leave me alone. Gripe gripe gripe.

On the subject of that exam, it is now almost finished. Doesn't matter to you, but I've been fixated lately. Other fixations: broken camera dropped off at the camera shop, first of the week's two SCUBA errands ticked off the yellowing checklist.

You know that phrase "One step forward, two steps back"? That's how my checklist seems right now. I'm back in the slightly crazed, slightly comforting and familiar role of having so much to do that the mind just constantly reorganizes the list: one question left on the exam; weekend dive trip; just under two weeks until a presentation for Models; piece together a separate presentation for the mysteriously vague Effects class; another project in Models and an enormous paper in Effects.

Somewhere in there add work, travel and Thanksgiving and anything else that might happen until mid-December. Now mix all those pieces and rearrange. Repeat.

Tiring just thinking about it.

# posted by Kenny