The line wasn't bad at all. Our old school mechanical voting booths are actually pretty awesome. The only bad part of the experience was that I almost missed the referendum above the political offices.

Not sure what I'll be doing tonight, but probably will be at the Erie County Democratic Headquarters with e:James once he's done working.



If Virginia and Florida are both called for Obama before 8pm, it's going to be a huge night for him. Otherwise we may be up very, very late

Detailed info on poll closing times across the country:



Don't forget to vote, even if it's not for my guy, Obama.

Get your bacon news at Bacon Today.

Including, but not limited to, chocolate-covered bacon:



And bacon we can believe in:

DO NOT START WITH THIS SHIT, CABLE NEWS!! HOLOGRAMS ARE RIGHT OUT.

From Erie County Democratic Headquarters, Buffalo NY.

11pm as election was called for Barack Obama, our 44th president.

According to unofficial results, Democrats captured 32 out of the 62 seats in the Senate. The shift marks the end of an era for New York Republicans, whose control of the Senate had come to depend on a bloc of senators, some in their 70s and 80s, who had put off retirement to help preserve the party's majority. --

So, the Democrats are in full control of the legislative and executive branches in New York State. Personally, I am hoping they legalize gay marriage, something that has previously passed the Assembly and has heretofore stalled in the Senate. Gov. Patterson is willing to sign such a bill. We'd be the first state to postively enact such legislation, instead of having courts make the call. A big, big, deal.

In general, it is now up to them to figure out how to cut the state budget by billions of dollars. I am not sure if they are up to the task or not, but I'll give them the benefit time to see if they can.

CC Licensed from

I'm trying to remember in my glee that 53% isn't the same as 100%.

Some maps from

By county:



By county, stretched to fit population:

I'm reading a book, "The 48 Laws of Power".



It is by turns interesting and disturbing. Each law has it's own chapter, with historical anecdotes and analysis.

Some are fairly neutral:

Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation -- Guard it with Your Life.

Others, not so much:

Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror -- Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability. Or, Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew.

Now, part of my enjoyment of this book is that it appeals to the inner dictator in me, a side that I never knew that I had. But, hmm... I do. Hate to admit it.

Generally, it's an interesting look at the 'pack of monkeys' part of our brains and culture. Everything I have read so far I can relate to experiences and situations that I've been in. I'm hoping to keep my eyes more open to this side of human interaction, without using it to scheme and plot.

If I ever start to seem unpredictable, though, cower in terror!

Servers have been ordered. Clustering and failover designed. Weeks and months of testing and automation. Probably a hundred hours of work total. Super excited, I've been prepping this stuff for 6 months now and it's going to see the light of day.

We're going for paired mirrors to start, then splitting out each VM container type into their own tiered clusters as we need to add capacity and can judge bottlenecks.

I know no one cares about this but me, but it's my journal so, what the hell