The Election: Introductory comment

The election is over, the Democrats “won,” and Rumsfeld’s gone. Please, oh pretty please, do not let the newly elected Democrats rest on their non-existent laurels. For the past few years, the Democratic Party has taken beating after beating without much protest. The Daily Show provided a good analogy through Vance DeGeneres, who compared the Democratic strategy for victory to waiting for a drunken assailant to hit himself with his own bottle (the “victor” eventually falls unconscious due to the continuous beatings). Nancy Pelosi’s call for the Democratic “mandate” is reminiscent of Bush’s “mandate” in the 2000 elections; some of the differences are that Bush’s “mandate” came through a skewed perspective on the US voting system, the indifference of the US voting population at large, and the administration’s penchant for providing alternative perspectives on reality, while the current Democratic mandate comes from the US population’s distaste for the war, recent scandals that exposed some of the excesses within the Republican Party and “conservatives” that brought about massive resentment, and the Democratic adaptation of the administration’s “spin alley.”

The Republican Party lost, which can hardly be counted as surprise. The Democratic Party was merely there to pick up the spoils.

One month into the life of the working person...

I have now worked in a non-student capacity for approximately a month. It is a change in terms of work hours and in terms of the severe reduction of my spare time. Beyond the three hours I have at home after work each weekday (I get home at approximately 18:00-18:30 and aim at going to bed close to 21:00), I have only got the weekends for good ol' relaxation. Oh woes!

Granted, I spend about an hour working out after work each day! It is quite nice as I have my own office and the structure of working for seven and a half hours helps me with maintaining discipline for keeping it up. The progress is coming on gradually, and I look forward to seeing the change come Christmas-time. I have attained the habit of eating three meals per day, along with two snacks (usually fruit, soup, and a protein shake).

Hmm...must find something more...interesting...for the next post :-D