Nothing gets a sleepy little kid out of bed quicker than the words, “gee, is that snow?”

OTOH, it also made me wish I had winter tires on my car. My lovely wife generously insisted I take hers instead, as she is home today.

November is often like this in Austria: a nasty cold snap that makes you hope of blizzards and a white Christmas; then it warms up again, Christmas is grey and it doesn’t get good and cold until January.

In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.

PS:
BoingBoing has links to some election-day footage.

So Alpha apparently said, as she left for the movies with Gamma, “you’ll have to make a painting table contraption for Gamma for Christmas, it will be a nice winter project and we can surprise her with it for Christmas.”

What I heard, though, was, “BzzBzz have to make painting table contraption for Gamma bzzZbzzzBzzz, and as soon as they drove off, I leapt into action.

My workshop is a complete mess, but I found enough workbench space and cut a bunch of big pieces with the circular saw, then a bunch of little pieces with the jigsaw, drilled holes into them with the drill and had the table about 80% screwed together by the time they came home. Gamma came into my shop and asked what I was up to and I proudly told her, which got me into trouble and now I have to think up another Christmas surprise for her.

But the table is going to be so cool when it’s finished.

Ohio machine error gives Bush extra votes.

Sorry.
Via Jessica, in my comments. Thanks.

This is interesting: Why Bush Won.

Crisis of masculinity? But then I think about my “little” brother, with his big cars and gun collection and broken marriage; he’s a Democrat and a union man and saw through Bush from day one. This explanation is too simplistic, although there is an element of truth to it. I always thought Reagan won because he spoke to emotions as well.

If you’re like me, you could use a new relaxation technique about now, so I’ll share something with you I recently discovered all on my own.

This is entirely serious, by the way.

I was at a conference at the UN a while ago and noticed a little weird-looking guy. He had a large, shaved head and a small body packed into a black suit but the most unusual thing about him was his posture: erect but relaxed, devoid of the usual body language. His arms hung at his sides relaxed, but not limp. There was zero aggressiveness or defensiveness about him.

It struck me as the way an enlightened person might stand, wasting no energy but somehow completely there, and I decided to try it.

The next week was the best of my life, in memory at least, as far as relaxation and what that brought goes. By being relaxed when I stood and walked, I quickly moved to a higher level of self-awareness and consciousness.

No fooling.

I think it works like this: by unconsciously using defensive or aggressive postures (shoulders up, arms up, or crossed, or hands in pockets, etc) you are not protecting yourself, only your persona, a persona that is holding you back. Your postures are preventing you from actually being yourself.

YMMV, of course.

I did it while walking today, as well: instead of flying forward, carried forward by momentum, I took each step consciously and individually. It takes a bit of concentration to do this without looking like someone from the Ministry of Funny Walks, but it’s entirely possible.

I concentrated on the smell of the air, on how my feet felt on the pavement (through my shoes), how my body felt and what colors the leaves were. Back at work now, I’m stressed out and distracted again, but for those few minutes I was right there.

Maybe you do this, or something else (what?) already. When did you figure it out? If you try this, let me know if it does you any good.