We went and voted in the local Democratic caucus a week or two ago.  The news had various spokespersons saying they expected about twice as many participants as usual.  That seemed to be a bit low when I heard it and I was right.  About three to four times the number of people who usually show up showed up according to later accounts.  We made our first visit to the local high school and spent a bit of time standing around on the pavement outside in the cold before we got in.  Upon entering we realized the line wasn't due to any registration process (there was none) it was because nobody knew their precinct numbers and several large maps had been setup just inside the main lobby area to help us figure that out causing the backlog to spill outside.

The downside being these very large maps... were not well printed and most people apparently can't read a map very well.  You could identify some main streets and use that and a little logic to identify what percent you were but most folks rather tried to identify the indecipherable small streets on the map. They were just blurry and yet clear enough to make people think they could read it if they squinted for about five minutes.  Fifteen minutes if each married couple each took a turn and then some time to argue about it.

Eventually we figured out we were #6 but of course it was nowhere near the rooms that held precinct 3,4,5,7,8,9,10...  no 6 was on the other end of the school.   We got there and by that time they had long since ran out of ballots and we had to write our presidential vote on a scrap of paper.  :P  I would have stuck around for the rest of the caucusing but the wife wasn't feeling well and wanted to get home.

Our candidate Obama won the state handily.  Too bad I couldn't vote for Lyndon LaRouche.

Pain

At my workplace we have this old TV that people use on weekends and late at night.  It has an old school RF antenna.  A long time ago the antennas had their little end nubs broken off leaving them as a pair of jagged metal spears.  The cart this TV sits on (or did, i stole a new one from engineering after a while) was unstable to say the least.  A while back a coworker was pushing the TV into some location and the cart hit a bump in the carpet.  The TV stopped but the employee didn't and somehow one of the antenna lined right up with his nose and stuck up a nostril causing some notable blood loss.  It wasn't a lobotomy but it was unpleasant.  I just wanted to share that.

John and Kate + Eight

I'm drawn to it like toddlers to unattended cookies, or babies to some shiny clinking keys, or toddlers to the only puddle in the middle of a sea of dry concrete.  I think the main draw is that the show feels real.  The parents are not always shown in the best light, frustrated, yelling at the end of their rope and such.  Meanwhile the six sextuplets and older twins are tons of fun to watch grow up.  Maybe it has some sort of Truman Show thing going on but I can't get enough of it to the point where I watch repeats.

The Biggest Loser

The wife watches that The Biggest Loser show.  I have strong mixed feellings about the show... I mildly appreciate the motivational concept.  I hate reality TV shows (the previously mentioned show being the exception of course).

Like most reality shows it painfully manufactures tension and drama and as usual I suspect the folks on the show know exactly what they're supposed to do and say making it anything but real.  How many times do we have to see them gather in a group and when some suprise is announced we get the typical talking head contestants reflections scene and they say OMG I was so suprised! when really it should be Well I've seen the show before and for the last several months Tuesdays is when they do the challenges.  They never tell us what challenges are before they happen so yeah I figured there was going to be a challange and it might involve water as we were all bussed to the local pool again.  I won't be surprised next week either when they mix up the teams as they can't go on in this format without doing something like that.  We're fat, not idiots.

Often they'll stoop even lower than that by using the realty TV standby of showing you the last two minutes of footage that was on just before the comerical shown right after the commercial as well.  When I was younger I knew stupid TV when I saw it but it was't until I was older when I understood the concept of insulting someone's intelligence.

Additionaly like all reality shows it eventualy even betrays its own intent.  I'm still down with people eating right and loosing weight.  At the same time it's hard to take the show seriously when they have a challange where the contestatns are put in a room of food and and the contestant who eats the most wins a prize but also of course puts their health and status in the contest at risk.  That just seems a bit meanspirited, and stupid.

New TV & Cable

With the new house I wanted an HDTV in the basement with me and upstairs in the faimly room.   The family room won our old 32" Olivia TV and I bought a new Sony Bravia KDL-32S3000 (consumer reports recomended it).  I like it.  It changes channels faster than the Olivia but seemingly like all HDTVs still is a bit slower than standard TV.  There was another recommended Sony whose contract ratio looked better to me but not for the price difference.

At this point I'm considering upgrading our standard cable and internet package for the (cheaper for 12 months) plan with cable, internet, and home phone service.

Cuba

Castro is no longer president of Cuba.  I don't see much chance of change until he dies.

Maybe then someone sensible can send Raul a letter and say Dude the rest of the caribbean is full, we need a place to send our tourists. We'll do some nice things for you, you do some nice things, and maybe after a while we all can pretend it isn't the 1950s anymore and have a good time again?

Really it isn't like we're not buddies with other dictators and if we loosen up and they agree to reciprocate maybe everyone can get to a better place.

Blu Ray

Blu Ray has defeated HD DVD.  This is supposed to matter to me despite the fact that I have no interest in paying $30 for a movie.

Great stories from the in laws

So the sister in law has been trying to sell her townhouse for a long time while she has been living in her new home.  As I recounted in the past her realtor doesn't know how to use his cell phone voice mail.   That's all I have to say about what I know about him.

Anyhow as things do it get cold in the winter here in MN, and where the sister in law lives in Iowa.  You know where this story is going.  The sister in law got a call on her cell recently while out of town.  Her neighbor's house was flooding.  Yep, her furnace went out at the townhouse and the pipes burst.  For good measure the water wasn't turned off.  Gladly I don't have to see deal with the results but I can imagine.

In the meantime the father and mother in law are visiting us.  I happen to be working this past weekend.  It seems the wife has done a good job keeping sane.  Her parents bother her far more than they do I.  That's to say she gets frustrated easily with them and I don't at all.  She didn't have grandparents growing up but she does have many older aunts and uncles.  As far as I'm concerned old people can do what they want provided they're not hurting anyone, they've earned it.  I probably wouldn't be happy with driving them around for three days visiting their friends down here all day either, but IMO that's part of being related to an old person(s).

It probably doesn't help that like most people my wife is a bit more irritable with family than other humans.  I guess it is normal but when her mom tells her what to do and how to arrange the house it really gets to the wife.  It is hard for me to understand as when it comes to my family i don't mind their advice, I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do and while I listen to their advice if it is different than what I think I should do no big deal.  Not so much for the wife.  Fortunately there hasn't been much panic about that lately.  Well ... so far.

Sins of a Solar Empire

I gave Sins of a Solar Empire a spin recently.  I like it.  The only thing being that for a TBS that is really just a slow RTS it is way slow.  It has to be to make it work but it is WAY slow.  Just a mini map took me many hours to play thru.  Still the sys requirements aren't super high.  It works on the work laptop, good enough for me.