November 3rd

Yesterday was an entertaining day at school. Before first hour I found a very elaborate vote break down on CNN.com that goes by state by state and then it has a county breakdown, like for Missouri for example, indicating how strong each candidate won certain counties.

(as overwhelming as it seems for Bush, due to the proportion of the population dispersed among the counties it was a lot closer than it looks because of the many people in the few blue counties, especially St. Louis and St. Louis city)

And when Audie showed up he saw part of the map and saw Alaska went to Bush.

Audie: "Alaska? What do you have to say to get Alaska to vote for you??"
Me: "Promise them more heat."

My 2nd hour teacher rejoiced and savored the victory in the Senate that saw the Democratic leader Tom Daschle ousted just barely by his Republican opponent. During the hour she also handed out candy. I guess in celebration to the obvious Bush victory that just needed to be ratified by the electoral vote update.

But since the teacher lives in Illinois, and since its so heavily Democratic leaning, especially Chicago, she felt her Republican votes were wasted there. I pointed out that at least she's voting for what she believes in.

I spent lunch outside, its my peaceful escape from a lunch table that seems to have too much of a scar or negative aura connotated to it in my mind that I can't go there anymore. The only downside was the icy cold wind.

Farrell, who for Halloween the Friday before had been a crack addict (with flour all over his lips and coming out of his nose), had some noteworthy quotes during 4th hour (I wrote them all down, thats why I have so many). We were taking notes over how to do an arts review, and we were on the bit about music, and she was asking for descriptions of a piece of music she played.

Farrell: "[it had] high pitched squeals, kinda like cows being murdered in the pasture."

...

Farrell: "Sounds kinda bluesy and jazzie."
Zach: "Bluesy... look that up in the dictionary."
Farrell: "At least my last name isn't Bush: 'transhipment'."
Me: "'Misunderestimate'."

[with less than two minutes elapsed]
Farrell: "The background vocals sounded churchish."
Someone: "Churchish..."
Me [to farrell]: "wow, you're on a roll today."
Farrell: "And he had nice 'transhipment' between..."

By the end of 5th hour the teacher had the news on to show Kerry's concession speach during the last two minutes of class.

But I couldn't hear it, first off because the TV volume was too low, and second because so many of the seniors and juniors in there by the TV asked a really dumb question indicative I believe of the intelligence of the "average" Americans.

"What does concession mean?"

I fucking died... I swear... that's just terrible... I had to resist the urge to say something then and there.

Model U.N. was also yesterday. Mike had stated that he wasn't going, so Ben and Joe weren't going either. So I tag up with Brenn and head towards the theatre lobby to go meet up with Mike. On the way there I was... "captivated"? By this one gal heading for F hall that I occassionally see at her locker before 6th hour. So yeah, I was distracted for a moment. Heh. And then when we get outside it turns out there is a meeting, since Mike decided to switch the topic away from the election and towards charity and human rights.

But after twenty minutes it went into the election. Heh. It was inevitable. Mike though had a twelve page print out from CNN.com that had interesting Exit Poll statistics. So I made sure to print off a copy of that when I got home because of the numbers on it:

Vote by Gender:
Male (46%) - 55% for Bush, 44% for Kerry
Female (54%) - 48% for Bush, 51% for Kerry

Vote by Race and Gender:
White Men (36%) - 62% for Bush, 37% for Kerry
White Women (41%) - 55% for Bush, 44% for Kerry
Non-White Men (10%) - 30% for Bush, 67% for Kerry
Non-White Women (12%) - 24% for Bush, 75% for Kerry

As Glenn would probably put it: "Stupid white men..." Heh.

Vote by Race:
White (77%) - 58% for Bush, 41% for Kerry
African-American (11%) - 11% for Bush, 88% for Kerry
Latino (8%) - 44% for Bush, 53% for Kerry
Asian (2%) - 44% for Bush, 56% for Kerry

Vote By Income:
Less than $50,000 (45%) - 44% for Bush, 55% for Kerry
$50,000 or More (55%) - 56% for Bush, 43 for Kerry

Are you a Union Member
Yes (14%) - 36% for Bush, 61% for Kerry
No (86%) - 54% for Bush, 45% for Kerry

Vote by Party ID
Democrat (37%) - 11% for Bush, 89% for Kerry
Republican (37%) - 93% for Bush, 6% for Kerry
Independent (26%) - 48% for Bush, 49% for Kerry

Vote by Religion
Protestant (54%) - 59% for Bush, 40% for Kerry
Catholic (27%) - 52% for Bush, 47% for Kerry
Jewish (3%) - 25% for Bush, 74% for Kerry
Other (7%) - 23% for Bush, 74% for Kerry
None (10%) - 31% for Bush, 67% for Kerry

Vote by Church Attendence
Weekly (41%) - 61% for Bush, 39% for Kerry
Occasionally (40%) - 47% for Bush, 53% for Kerry
Never (14%) - 36% for Bush, 62% for Kerry

It goes on and on. Great stuff. Better than sports statistics, as Tigas pointed out.

Heh, when the discussion in Model U.N. went to cloning, I couldn't help but go. "Well, we wouldn't have to worry about a draft anymore because they could then just clone themselves an army." Its Science fiction right now, but it could probably be done further down the line, whether it be for mainstream army or for elite special forces units.

So I found a stack of Newsweeks and TIME magazines near the heater in the room, and found one from mid 2002 about the march towards war. Near the front of the class there was a Newsweek that had an article from March 2003 that I really liked called "Arrogant Empire". And then either a TIME or a Newsweek from late 2001 that had a breakdown of U.S. forces, air strikes, Northern Alliance forces, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. What I never knew before was that the Taliban had an Air Force (even though very small).

Ah the memories.

Four more years of memories coming up. Enjoy the show, America. You voted for it.