It’s 07.05 CET in Stockholm, and I am ready to call this election.

I forecast Bush will get 274 Electoral Votes — 4 more than he needs to win the White House for another 4 years. This is because Bush won Florida, Ohio, and will likely win New Mexico and Alaska late into the evening. Making it statistically impossible for Kerry to get more than 260 Electoral Votes — even if all of the other states vote for him as projected.

This is shitty news. Sad news really. If you thought that the first four years were shitty — baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet! This will be the term when justices retire, the courts become more conservative, and the expansion of the US Patriot Act and other laws which limit personal freedoms ramp up into high gear.

Ladies and Gentlemen, get the Crisco…we are fucked!

OK, so today is the day! No more screwing around! It is time to go to the polls and vote for Kerry. Even if you are in one of those “locked” states where everyone is predicting that the vote will come out for one candidate over another. Go and vote anyway! Exercise your constitution right to almost be heard (it is a participatory democratic republic after all).

Most importantly, I hope that if you are able to vote that you will vote for Kerry. Really, 4 years of a Bush Administration increased the rates of the uninsured, started an unjustifiable war, has openly declared hostile actions on the environment and those of us of lesser means (not necessarirly at the exponse of the rich which I know is Kerry’s favourite “whipping group”).

You wouldn’t stand 4 years of declining prosperity if it were your household, don’t accept it anymore under Bush.

Don’t accept that the world is either good or evil — the world is strangely more complex.

Don’t accept that a vote for Kerry will make America less secure — we aren’t really much more secure today then we were on Septmeber 10th — we just now have a color-coded system to tell us how worried we should be and we have a registration system upon entering the country that determined crimimals with records, but not terrorists without.

Don’t accept that we can’t do more for the environment — short-term profits today at the expense of environmental security tomorrow is perilous for the children.

Don’t accept that a vote for Kerry is a vote for Evil — even if your church gives you pamphlets and literature suggesting such. Both men (along with the overwhelming majority of us) already have concorde class tickets to Hell. Really. The ride might be a little friendier with Kerry as the pilot.

Don’t assume the rest of the world doesn’t understand our position just because they don’t agree with it — they do understand. They just think we are wrong. And a lot of follow Americans agree that we are wrong in our course of action and foreign policy behaviour.

You CAN BE A PATRIOT and be critical! It’s OK, despite warnings by Bush and Cheney that anything less than totally alliegence to the Church of Dubya makes you a tratior giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

OK, so I am a Kerry fan. Admittedly. And if Kerry loses, I will do everything in my power to extend my assignment outside of the US.

We have an unique opportunity to change things. Not for the better (it will take at least a decade to reverse the damage of four years of Bush), but at least in a better direction.

Let’s not waste it!

So I have exercised my constitutional right today and I have voted my absentee ballot. Of course I am really happy to have voted because I think it is important to vote. I realise that coming from Massachusetts, it is clearly “Kerry Country”, but I don’t want to take any chances.

But then I also realised all of the things that can go wrong with my ballot. It could be tampered with, misplaced, or discarded….whether those things are intentional or not is another matter. But you’ve gotta have a little faith I suppose 🙂

Let’s hope for the love of all that is good in the world that Kerry makes it past Bush on U.S. Election Day

This article from the NYT says it about as well as I can….perhaps even better.

I’m voting for Kerry. Hopefully enough of America will do the same…

Today I felt like making an update. Just because. Life has been fairly busy, but I do need to update more often. I am glad that this week is over, because it has been difficult. I also realized that I am spending too much money and have to save a bit more. It’s not dire at all, bt I do need to build up a bit of a reserve.

Anyway, I will provide a fuller update later. Now I want to catch up on other journals. Ciao everyone! 😉

Well, now that Steve has left IBM, Caroline has left the Nordics, and I am integrated into the Swedish and Nordic organisations, it means that I don’t have anyone to lunch with when I come into the Kista office. I don’t mind lunching by myself on occasion. In fact, it can be quite nice to have some peace and quiet. But now I am back to where I started in September 2002, really all by myself in the Nordics.

I think that to counter that sense of being by myself, I better start going into the downtown Stockholm office more often sense there are a lot of international assignees there that I can work along with as well as being close to the Swedish organisation.

At any rate, I will remember to stay happy and positive. After all, I have no shortage of work that I need to get done and it will certainly help me to be isolated a bit in order to get my deliverables ready.

Oh yeah, and while I have not been posting pulbically on a regular basis, I just got back from the UK where I had spent 4 days and the week before I spent the Friday (overnight, so leaving on Satruday) in Oslo. Just so you know what has been up with me — it’s been loads of work! 🙂

Hugs to all, Rodney

Well today I am off to the UK for a week. I wish I could say it was London, but it is really Portsmouth. Not that Portsmouth is all bad. It is just that London is a lot more fun! But worry not, I have a night in London, but only because I didn’t want to travel late on Thursday night.

I will of course keep you updated dear reader…I promise 🙂

First a warning … the WEBSITE REFERENCED IS NOT WORK-SAFE! That means that there’s some porn-style nudity in it.

OK, with that out of the day….onto my original-scheduled post!

So I was chatting with some friends on QX (the gay internet portal for Scandinavia), when I came into contact with a person called “Spermhora”. He’s 21 and his QX name translates into “Sperm Whore”. OK, I don’t begrudge him that because everyone is an individual and are entitled to do what they like.

But get this…he also has a website http://www.spermahora.tk, in which he advertises himself to the world and even provides his mobile number to everyone.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t imagine ever wanting to meet this guy! But I was still amazed of what he put out there of himself on the internet. Maybe he’s a braver soul than I. Maybe he’s just trashy. Maybe he’s comfortable with himself enough to flaunt the normal conventions of meeting people and just admit what he likes and wants right up front. Whatever the case, I thought it was a bit peculiar.

Why someone would create an internet website like that is one of two of my perplexing thoughts of the day. The second thought just an informal poll of what you guys think?

Maybe I am getting old and conservative now, so what opinions of thoughts do you other have?

Tungsten still rocks