Tuesday
Today was a decent day. I had coffee with rare and elusive this morning. My superpower also kicked in: I was given another monitor. 17″ CRT. All I need to do now is build the new machine that I’ve been threatening to build for the past couple of months.

Today was also Election Day. I voted and I hope that everyone made it to their polling place and cast their ballots. And that’s all that I have to say about that.

Actually, no it isn’t.

<rant>

I was checking out other journals this morning and I came across a picture of a little girl in a “Vote for ___” t-shirt. She was four-year-old. In the accompanying text, the mother noted that “…I decked my 4 year old out in her Kerry/Edwards gear and sent her off to school. She loves John Kerry!” What in the Nine Hells?! I realize that campaigns make “show your support” clothing for all ages, but that statement struck me as… more than a little “odd.”

I don’t want to sound TOO peevish, but what does a 4-year-old really know about any other candidate? Four-years-old?! Please. Don’t foist your political agenda on someone who’s barely old enough to decide between having Cheerios or Cocoa Puffs for breakfast… and then claim that they like said candidate.

Jess has a 10-year old nephew who has begun forming his own opinions about the election process; he has even said for whom he would vote, if he was of age. The difference between him and the girl in the picture (besides the six year gap) is: He’s old enough to understand some of the issues and has asked questions about things that he didn’t understand. Granted, because of his age, there were some things that could only be explained to a certain extent, but he was given answers that he could wrap his head around. And, to the best of my knowledge, the answers that he was given were grounded in the facts, not our opinions of “you should like Candidate X or Candidate Y because…”

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were definitely right with the song Teach Your Children. Explain the election process and some of the issues to your kids. Make sure that they grow up educated about the process. And if you don’t know how it works, find out before you misinform your kids.

</rant>

Stray Toasters

  • I didn’t play HALO during election night prime time. Instead, I looked up flights for the trip home at Thanksgiving. Correction: I not only “looked for” them, I “found” them.
  • Ghosts – These are not apparitions or paranormal encounters; they are pictures of World War II-era aircraft, taken by Philip Makanna.

    P-51D Mustang

    F4U Corsair

    P-38L Lightning

    P-47D Thunderbolt
    All photos © Philip Makanna
  • As another means of distraction from election night coverage, I watched a couple of episodes of Andromeda on SciFi. Even though I think that it’s an all right show, a little voice in the back of my head still calls it “Hercules in Space.”
  • Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle, is now on display at the National Air & Space Museum’s new branch near Dulles Internation Airport, in Virginia. Read more about it here
  • Tuesday Twoplays on VH1 Classic. So many 80s videos should have been stillborn. Although, they have somewhat restored my faith in humanity by playing a couple of Rush videos. Not necessarily a couple that I would have chosen, but it’s Rush. And that’s enough.
  • and I obviously think along similar lines. He sent me an email this afternoon that linked to this picture of Frozone from the upcoming movie, The Incredibles.
    He thought that I should consider it as a potential icon. After seeing a couple of stills from the movie on Comics Continuum Monday night, I had thought the same thing. And then, I started thinking about next year’s Hallowe’en costume…
  • Hm. I’m restless. This late at night, that usually isn’t a good sign.

Namaste.