Sometimes I get into these weird moments where I'm awed by what I see around me and the history, innovation, and culture buzzing around me. This usually occurs when I'm absurdly bored or otherwise unoccupied with anything of importance. The other day I was driving home from work on France Avenue from Edina back to my apartment in Saint Paul. The sun had long begun its daily slumber casting the area in shadow. The lights bathed the streets and headlights illuminated the spaces between the jam packed cars as tens of thousands tried to get home. I had my music on and I slowly inhaled and exhaled my stress from work away. I didn't have anywhere particular to be after work had wrapped up so I was in no hurry. But as I approached the overpass to take my exit to work, I saw that I-494 was a solid line of white lights coming towards me and a solid line of red lights going away from me. Rush hour had brought the highway to a crawl so I opted to take the frontage road and avoid the mess altogether. 

But something happened at this point. I had some weird moment of zen where I appreciated and shook my head at what I saw. I sat in my Nissan Sentra, who's steel was harvested from the Earth in a great number of places, or at the least recycled and shipped to great number of manufacturing plants, presumably some in Japan and in the United States where at one point it was assembled into some coherent vehicle. It ran on gasoline pumped from Canada and refined in the United States via a pipeline through northern Minnesota into Wisconsin. But, forget even the current stuff, just looking around me was amazing. Just 150 years ago, this was nothing... just a small fort of a few hundred people lay nestled high on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota River. And in a relatively short period of time, all the people, infrastructure, buildings, and economic activity necessary to get me to that point came together. The very highway I was driving over was not even in existence some 40 years ago. 

But then I thought about the things I couldn't see. Like the urban animal that is really hard to observe. How everything follows a pulse, from air traffic, to rush hour, breakfast and lunch rushes, even cell phone calls and Nielson ratings for tv shows. This city (as all others are) acted as a large organism, reminiscent of a fungus, generally immobile and absorbing resources. But the city gets even more complex in terms of its ability to send information, electricity, water, and sewage to the places they need to be. I say very impressive, even if common place at this point. 

I couldn't stop looking at the complexity there. I kept going further, looking at things that were not human created. Like basic chemical reactions. The combustion of fuel in our engines, the digestion of food, the conversion of CO2 and water into sugars and oxygen. This going around us all the time. The very chemicals in our blood working in unison, or sometimes at war. The ability for our blood to buffer swings in pH, how salt depresses the freezing temperature of water, or how a current excites electrons in neon atoms causing them to emit light as they return to their resting state (temporarily of course). 

But it doesn't even stop there! We have the cultural element... the family unit, the neighborhood, city government, state government, federal government and international politics. The complexity of human interaction is dizzying and hard to even grasp the big picture of anything. Thinking at this level only moves my mind to briefly think about the water cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle and many more. Weather, carbon-silicate recycling/plate tectonics, evolution, etc. And all of this occurs in just the right manner for the most part to sustain a semi-intelligent species. 

And yet again, the complexity doesn't stop there. Thats only on Earth. The chemical systems on other planets in our own solar system and the dynamics of the galaxy only make what I see seem so insignificant and special. 

This moment of zen came crashing down as I realized the idiot two cars in front of me was in fact NOT going into the left hand turn lane as he had originally indicated stranding myself and another car in the middle of the intersection where an offramp unloaded. We managed to force the offramp cars to wait an entire cycle for the street lights. This irritated me and I got off the road and went to the Mall of America....

I bought a jacket for $17 on sale. It was originally $78. I forgot all about the complexities of the universe and thought to myself...

"Damn, I look good in this".

The other day I was at a drive through in Edina, MN near where I work. I pulled in line and waited for a bit before I got really sick and tired of waiting. I seriously believe you should have to pass a test to go in the drive through cause its NOT convenient when someone in front of you is like "Well, I'm not sure... does that come with sauce... hang on, I'm not sure what to get...". No... get out of line you idiot! This is supposed to be speedy and convenient. I go up and just say " A large Big Mac Meal, with a coke and a McChicken, that's all" and they tell me my total, I say thanks and move along. It got me thinking... how many things are there that we use for "convenience" that really isn't. The day I left the drive through line and walked inside, I totally beat the line. So Fast food drive throughs during rush hour are not convenient at all. 

Here's a short list of things I came up with.

1. Drive Through Banking
Sorry... that has NEVER in my life EVER been convenient.... EVER. Even when properly prepared with a slip and a pen (which is almost never), I still end up having to wait with all the other cars, and the tube transportation system.... etc etc. Or the drive through ATM. I always get stuck behind the person who can't reach or doesn't know what they are doing. Banking should never be done from cars.... NOT convenient in the slightest.

2. Self Scanning groceries.
This ones two-fold.
A.) Ignoring the "idiot in front of you" theme I have going.... these machines are sometimes just a pain themselves. Often the touch screens are kinda iffy and they are really slow and have menu after menu after menu. God forbid you buy a piece of food that doesn't have a barcode. Then if your item slightly slips off the weigh station or something falls onto it, the machine yells at you. "Unexpected item in bag! Unexpected Item in bag!" (THIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF!). This is all assuming its WORKING properly. Ever notice how probably a good 25% of the time, ONE of these self check out machines has a "Sorry, out of order" sign? These machines suck. Even the act of paying with cash is a pain. Sorry, Clerks are superior.
B.) Well, maybe not always. I recently ran into a clerk that got angry when I bought squash without going through the self checkout line because I thought that there weren't enough (my friends were for some reason using the same one and leaving another one open) so this disgruntled employee got kinda snippy with me. So now they EXPECT us to use it. Sorry I put you to work you dunce. I'll try to make your lame job go a little slower next time.

3. Escalators
Is it just me or are they slower these days? Additionally, why do I always get stuck behind the two really large people who refuse to walk....escalators suck. Not much else to say. The only exception to this is if you're carrying a heavy bag, then I'll excuse you (but an elevator works better anyway, but... maybe there's availability issues).

4. Windows OS
No explanation needed

5. Cell Phones
Just because I have one... doesn't mean I HAVE to talk to you right now... or ever really. If I didn't pick up, stop calling me multiple times in a row. Text me or leave a message. Don't you hear my answering machine... It says I'll get back to you!!!! Something about hearing older folks' ring tones bother me. They are either the default ones or some really weird song.

 So its the first Tuesday of November... the day we hold our annual elections (although for completely different offices, unless its only for a one year term). After the undoubtedly historic election of 2008 and the turmoil that occurred concurrently and since, this election appeared to have snuck up on many of us, some even asking "What election?" Yes there is one and there are a number of races that were highly watched as they were labelled a "barometer" of Obama's presidency as Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota put it. There were interesting races across the country from governorships to numerous municipal elections. I'll start with the big ones...

Virginia and New Jersey Governorships:
Before I get to each individual race, lets just analyze the current state of American politics, briefly of course. The big question is... Are these races in any way a referendum on Obama's Presidency. The answer, in my opinion is a simple no. Americans are GREAT at separating Federal and State Elections. Now I'm not discounting the existence of coattails... but thats usually a bigger phenomenon when the person pulling the coattails is ACTUALLY on the ballot. Obama is NOT on the ballot. Additionally... there are unique conditions in both Virginia and New Jersey that even I concede I don't have a clue about. Wins in the Republican column in no way mean anything in terms of Obama's Presidency. Lets put this in a simple caricature....

Lets leave the President and his current agenda and issues as is. Health Care Reform, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Climate Change bills being his main concerns. But say a state is choosing their governor.... do national issues ALWAYS trump local issues in elections? Of COURSE not. A state may be more concerned about slot machines, sales tax, budget crises and other things. There's a reason why we have a federal structure of government... issues are handled at different levels. So what may be the focus of the federal government it does not necessarily match state governments and I think most people realize that.  The election of a particular candidate at the state level does not mean that the approval or disapproval of the president has any bearing (especially since the powers of these two offices almost never overlap). 

Additionally... we are dealing with ACTUAL candidates in state elections. Its not "Obama's Party" v. "Not Obama's Party" (although after last years thwomping, it may seem that way). There are names and faces, debates and ads. State elections are inherently separate animals then their federal counterparts. ESPECIALLY when its an off year election as it is now. Off year elections almost ALWAYS favor the party NOT in power.

So specific to this year... What should we have expected before today... Voter turnout will be abysmal. I'm talking 20% in most places. This has very astounding effects. 
A) Federal elections get a lot more media attention and will attract more voters due to perceived "importance". What does this mean in terms of results. Biased sampling will be far more prevalent. Since people are not generally passionate about the off year elections, the people who DO turnout will not be representative of the population as a whole (sampling bias). The people who are more passionate will show up in greater numbers (and its usually the people who are not in power). The Republicans SHOULD do better in this election. 
B) Minority and Youth turnout is expected to be low. With 2008 numbers for both youths and minorities at record levels, it is only natural to see them collapse. But off years even more so. Older generations tend to vote with more regularity (only somewhat more). The enthusiasm gap that plagued Republicans last November is now reversed. Youths and minorities are not going to match the numbers they put up last year and never have come out in force on off years. Older white rural voters tend to have a greater share of the vote in off years. Again a plus for Republicans

So does this translate into wins in New Jersey and Virginia....

New Jersey:
Given Corzines approval ratings flirting with the freezing mark, yes, Christopher Christi should have one. Really, had Republicans put up a more qualified candidate who could articulate his thoughts (and apparently was skinnier), they would have solidly won this (easily by double digits). Corzines abysmal approval rating should have marked a tidal wave of votes for the Republicans and given the conditions of 2009, Christi's sub-50% win is actually disappointing. But, a W by a Republican in a blue state is still a good W. Besides, in non-Wave years, flips like this are rather pointless. Great, the GOP have a governor in New Jersey. Too bad he doesn't control the legislative agenda and his party is the minority in New Jersey. A pretty hollow victory.

Virginia:
Despite the rather large victory by Obama in 2008, Virgina is still a fairly red state. But as I pointed out earlier, this is not an Obama Referendum. The candidate the VA Democratic Party put up for governor was a poor candidate and may have lost for NOT being liberal ENOUGH and resulted in a piss poor enthusiasm in the Democratic base. When polls earlier this summer suggested a close race for tonight, instead of trying to enthuse his base and getting the Youth and Minority demographics out in force, he tried moving left of center suggesting he'd opt out of the public option being among his most controversial things. As McCain struggled with alienating his base (his TRUE moderate base), Deeds has repeated that problem. This and the off year election factors that favor the Republicans in 09, there is no surprise that Republicans won. 

Here's how it should be looked it... the Two Governorships falling into Republican hands SHOULD have occurred. If they didn't, that would have been a very large upset and would have spelled huge troubles for the Republican Party. So tonights victories, although still good, isn't stellar. 

The GOP should be worried about losing NY-23, a district that normally favors Republicans. But the confusing split in the Republican ranks may have just handed the election to the Democrats. A big loss indicative of the moderates becoming disillusioned with the Republican party and following Dede Scozzafava's advice of backing the Democratic just shows that the ideological split in the GOP can and will still spell trouble in 2010. This is a race that the Republicans should have held on to, but the Teabagging wing of the Republican Party has turned off many moderate Republicans. 

My local races:
Nothing terribly exciting in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul cruised to re-election by garnering nearly 70% of the vote in their respective cities. The big news of the day is that Minneapolis used Ranked Choice voting (instant runoff voting) and ran very smoothing and across the Mississippi, Saint Paul's voters voted to use this same system for future elections. The vote won with around 53% of the vote. 

Other major races include... 
Atlanta (First white female?)
Houston (First Openly gay mayor?)
The Gay Marriage referendum in Maine

As of the writing of this post, Atlanta and Houston were poised to make history. The Gay Marriage referendum may overturn the legislature's efforts to legalize gay marriage although a recount is possible in Maine. If there are any races anyone else wants to comment on ... go for it.

 I'll be back to posting some more now that my life is a bit more orderly. The State Fair just wrapped up this past Labor Day (Monday) and I'm glad its done. This year saw record attendance of 1.79 million people! It is the "busiest" state fair in the US with the highest average daily attendance. 

During my tenure at the State Fair, I made pizza for such people as Jason Aldean, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and 38 Special (Someone said Journey was there but I don't think they were). I also served pizza to one of our local news personalities, Amelia Santenello. That was pretty cool. I felt special....

Anywho....

Somali President is Visiting Minneapolis soon

as is...


President Obama :O. He's coming to my area, just down the hill at the Xcel Center. The same place where he declared victory over Hillary Clinton during the primaries :). It'll be interesting so I'll try and get tickets.

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Since I got my new car back in March, I have been able to experience the roads of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Maryland (well, I learned this one over that past 10 years, but whatev). And... well, as most of us can attest to, we all get our little bit of road rage when... how shall I put this... incompetant idiots... take the road. Be it that they are just ignorant, stupid, inattentive, or just completely oblivious... these people just grind you to no end. Driving can be a pain as it is when millions of other people hit the roads and highways at rush hour, but its these SPECIAL people that make your drive horrible.... I'm just gonna list a few of those things that really really tick me off....

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 So the X-Men drought is over.... and God I wish it wasn't. I won't spoil the actual movie for you it does that just fine on its own. Thankfully, we only paid $6 at a suburban theatre instead of the local theatre. I would have been mortified if I had to pay $10 for this movie. There are SOOO many issues with this movie, I don't know where to start.

1. Growling is only good in moderation:
Yea, super heros grunt, growl, snarl and make loads of animilistic noise. I mean, Venus and Serena grunt hitting a 3 ounce tennis ball. Grunting is fun since it fits in just fine with the themes of "Origins" except its taken just a wee bit far. How far? Lets make a simple analogy. You need to cut down a sapling in your back yard and you use enough dynamite to bring down the RCA Dome to accomplish that. Yes... its so over the top, the infamous "Darth Vader NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" will no longer be the laughing stock. And some of these growls are just... nasty, you can almost taste the snot in the actors throats... but alas, this is a minor complaint... (Even Cyclops screams, and child Wolverine has a terrible yell that makes it laughable). 

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 It is an embarassment that the land of Progressive Democrats, Minnesota, has a member of such repugnant beliefs and ideas representing a large swath of its people. How can a state that helped kickstart the modern Unionist movement - which I admit has recently become problematic - held the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit and had its largest city at one point have 5 openly gay members and 2 Green Party members. For crying out loud, our Democrats are technically called "Democrat-Farmer-Labor". Yet we still have this ding bat in power... there are no words to describe her idiocy other than her own... 

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