Famille Du Pentium

OK I know, I said no more political posts.  But I’m making an exception, because 
A) It’s funny
B) It’s tagged “Llama”, not “Politics”

Turn Up The Sound, and Sing Along!

Enough political blogging, feh, I’m sick of it! ;-).

Last Thursday night was Aaron’s Winter band concert; recall that Aaron plays the trombone.   Pictures are HERE, however because of the heavy mercury lighting in the McCracken Middle School gym, my point-and-shoot camera could not focus or auto set the shutter speed correctly, so the pictures came out kind of blurry.  See if you can find him.

Of course, you can’t *hear* the concert from the pictures, and I had no luck trying to record it this year.  Sorry, hopefully I’ll have some sound bytes from the Spring concert.

Quick family-ish update: Aaron made High Honors in school.  We’re absolutely thrilled.  Ethan and Justin’s “Young Atheletes” and swimming programs are over now, so even more free time in the evening.  Next up: Parent-Teacher Conferences, until Thanksgiving, then some blessed relief from the constant running.  Black Friday: Last year, I slept in on Black Friday and purchased my big ticket items online.  Not sure yet if I’m doing Black Friday this year; we’re not planning any big electronics purchases, so it’d only be for gifts (which was the original intention…)  and so far I haven’t seen any great deals on that stuff yet.  Winter vacations: Yeah, uh right… you know I work for a Bank, right? 🙁

Mitch Mitchell, the last surviving member of Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead today in his hotel room.  He apparently died of natural causes.  After Jimi Hendrix’s death, and the subsequent death of Bass player Noel Redding in 2003, Mitchell continued to tour regularly as part of the Experience Hendrix Tour.  He was 61 years old.

Alas, OSCON – the collection of open source hippies I hang out with for a week every summer in Portland, Oregon has moved the 2009 conference to San Jose, CA.  So Portland will have to wait until 2011 (the next Humphries family reunion) to see me again.  On the upside, I have cousins in San Jose! 🙂

Fortunately, even though Portland is brimming with India Pale Ale microbreweries, there are now plenty of micro IPAs available in Chicago.

Michael Crichton, the writer of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Westworld, The Great Train Robbery, Coma, Looker, Runaway, and the NBC series “ER”, died Tuesday after battling cancer.  He was 66.

My first favorite movie was Westworld, starring Yul Brenner.  One of my first computer games for the Commodore Pet 64 as a teenager was a video game based on “Andromeda”.  As a young adult, my first favorite novel was Coma.  And early on in the series, until they jumped the shark, I watched ER all the time.  And of course, who hasn’t seen Jurassic Park?

Rest in peace, Michael.

This is my final post tonight.  I’m going to bed.  In my local & state elections, Democratic incumbent Jeffrey Schoenberg has beaten his Republican challenger Brendan Appel handily, 79 to 21% for our State Senate position, and CLTV (AKA Tribune Company) has “called” that race.  In my State House district, Republican incumbent Elizabeth Coulson has once again held back yet another “Elect me, I’m a Democrat!” challenger, Daniel Biss – currently 61 to 39%.  CLTV has not called that race, but I’m going to go to bed assuming she’ll win.  Both good news, as far as I’m concerned.

Two state referendums are going the way I voted: The call for an expensive and unneccessary constitutional convention is failing, 67 to 33 percent; and the proposed constitutional amendment (without a convention) allowing the recall of Illinois governors (*cough* Blagojevich *cough*) is winning, 63 to 37 percent.  Again, none of these called by CLTV, but I’m going with them.

Plucky Republican Tony Peraica, having nearly beaten Todd Stroger for the nepotism-filled Cook County Board President a few years ago, tried this time to grab the States Attorney’s title, and has apparently lost.

As of now, Barack Obama is solidly ahead of John McCain, the only debatable point being by how much.  I’ll leave the MSNBC election results post below, rather than calling that race – but I think we have a new party in the White House by the time I wake up.

[UPDATE 1: Yeah, I know I said I’m going to bed.  But before I could log out, NBC officially called Barack Obama the winner of the US Presidential race, with 284 electoral votes.]

[UPDATE 2: CNN just called it for Obama too.  It’s over.]

Oh yeah, about that Chicago cab driver – John Joseph Polachek, running for President, but only in Cook County.  Seems the guy has pulled together 829 votes, including himself.  Hey, don’t get me wrong – I didn’t vote for the guy, I read his Board of Elections filing, and he seems like a kook.  But, kook or not, he did something that not many others would try – he didn’t like the way things are going in America, so he ran for president.  And he got 828 votes more than you and I will ever get.  If nothing else, he’ll have a great story to tell his grandkids

The nifty MSNBC widget will remain in the post below, while I make notes about my own State & Local races here.

CNN has called Illinois for Obama, overwhelmingly – 71 to 28 percent.  Oh yeah, that cab driver I posted about before?  Apparently, he did at least vote for himself.  His current vote count: 1.  CNN is calling Democrat incumbent Dick Durbin for the US Senate race, 74 to 23 percent; and Democrat incumbent Jan Schakowsky will win the the US House 9th District, 81% to Republican challenger Michael Younan’s 14%.  No big surprises there.

No word yet on the Schoenberg and Coulson race, I’ll post here later.

This is my last post before elections.  By the time I sit down at the computer tomorrow, returns will be coming in.  So I will take this opportunity to admonish, cajole, and otherwise pester everyone who reads my blog to go out and vote, if you have not already.

I don’t care if you vote for McCain, Obama, or even this Chicago cab driver who wants to be elected President.  The point is, if you feel strongly about what direction that America should take in the next four years, you have never had a better chance to help steer it in that direction.  At no time in recent history have the candidates for office been more advocative of change in Washington and of America’s leadership place in the world.

So go forth, friends and family, and make history.  I’ll post here tomorrow as the returns start coming in, and compare the results to my vote.

Today is Skokie AYSO’s “Soccerfest”, a tournament that caps the eight-week fall soccer season.  Aaron will be playing three games, each one consisting of two 15-minute halves (no quarters) with a five minute break in between each half.  Then he’ll have a 45 minute break between each game.

He won’t play with his regular season team.  Teams will be randomly set when he checks in (in about 15 minutes from now), and he’ll play with the same team throughout the day.

I’ll take the camera and hopefully post pics after it’s all done.

UPDATE: Pictures have been uploaded, available HERE.  Enjoy!