Barack Obama sealed the deal earlier, securing the nomination election for the 44th president of the United States of America. And, bye the bye, the first African-American president.

Pretty amazing night. Obama gave a solid, emotional but realistic speech to the approximately 100k(?) people in Grant Park, Chicago.

John McCain gave a gracious, classy speech to about 1k folks at his party in Arizona. (Invitation only)

Sorta sums up the campaign that is now, thankfully, over.

Well, unless something goes very wrong tomorrow, by this time tomorrow, we – folks in the U.S. – will probably know that an historic event has occurred:

We’ll either have elected our first African-American president, or elected our first Female vice president.

Either way, historic.

I predict Obama with a 90-120 electoral vote win (over McCain), but a very low popular vote edge (~5-7%).

I could – and probably am – wrong, which is the fun part of putting this down on electronic paper.

So I can look at this tomorrow as ask myself, “What the hell were you thinking?”

Let the votes begin…

This post title is literal, I’m talking about a bigger TV (and more).

I’ve had a 27-inch CRT Sony for years (great picture), but the idea always was to move this TV upstairs to the bedroom (where the bedroom TV is a disaster), and get a flatscreen for the living room.

Finally got the chance to get one of those big, honkin’ LCD screens (Sanyo).

Wow. Bigger pic and all that, but – TV and DVD – lots of pixalation.

Big TV was just Part I of my III part plan.

Next, got an upscaling DVD player. I just watched Casino, and the well-lit parts of this are (especially) outstanding. Even on a big-ass TV, very little grain, and virtually no pixalation.

Then, I upgraded from Comcast Analog to Comcast Digital (with HD channels).

Many issues to report, but bottom line:

Oh.

My.

God.

Lester Holt on MSNBC news (HD) is impeccable, even on this large screen.

The digital feed makes non-HD channels much better than analog, really.

There are issues (that I’ll bring up as I really identify and get fixed/not), but overall, WOW.

I’ll only be watching HD channels (networks, History Channel etc) unless there isn’t an HD option (Comedy Central – with “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” – are sadly NOT HD….).

Welcome to the 21st Century, you analog Luddite…

Yep, it’s the Autumnal Equinox.

Here in Chicago, the weird summer (too [everything]) has given way to an almost beautiful week of summer…as we trod into fall.

Go figger.

And I’m not complaining.

Our backyard – not supposed
to have a pond

Well, Hurricane Ike is barreling through Texas, and up here in Chicago we are getting the remnants of that Category 2 storm.

We set some sort of record for rainfall yesterday at more than six inches, and more is on the way.

The picture shows how the rain has pooled at the end of our (and neighbors’) yard; it’s a couple of inches deep.

It rained like hell all yesterday; still raining today but not as bad, and the flood waters are receding.

Still, it would have been nice to come back from vacation and be able to barbecue or just wander around the yard. Not going to happen this weekend…

Well, we just returned from a week in Maine.

We pretty much stayed on the coast, from Portland up north to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We did go inland a bit – up to Bangor and through Augusta – but that was just on the interstate to get back down to Portland from Bar Harbor.

I’m in the process of building out the gallery for this trip, but – as I process images – some first impressions of the state while it’s still fresh in my mind:

• I could live in Maine, at least in Portland. It’s a beautiful and sensible (see examples below) state.
• Very beautiful coastline, and the lighthouses are, of course, classic. Very different coastline than the US’ Pacific coastline, both in looks (Maine more weathered rock; Pacific more sand beaches) and character – Maine fishing and so on; Pacific a lot of housing.
• Once we veered from the coast, the heavy forests heavy with pine and birch reminded me of upper Wisconsin or Michigan. With the hills (not so much in WI or MI), it reminded me a lot of upstate New York, the Finger Lake region.
• Maine, like Montana, has a state rule that says if an individual is standing in a crosswalk, vehicles must stop and let the pedestrians cross. We’re talking in the middle of block in downtown Portland at rush hour. Amazing. I wonder how many tourists from Maine or Montana never fully make it across their first street in Chicago, for example?
• A very clean state. Sure, less populous than Illinois and all that, but I saw virtually no garbage on highway sides, in state parks, on beaches and so on.
• Tying in with the preceding point: Overall, Maine seems to respect nature more than many states I’ve been to. Lots of garden centers; many well-landscaped homes (even the small, poorer homes). Little trash. Canisters with pooper-scooper bags to help clean up after dogs. Speaking of the same, dogs everywhere. In stores and so on. No big deal. Things like these.
• Friendly folks. Shopkeepers, people on the street, the highway department: It’s not construction for the next 3 miles, it’s construction for the next 3.01 miles. Honest. Saw lots of signs like that.
• I love seafood (no sure why; never had any beyond perch fry growing up), and I certainly ate my fill this week…and I still want more…
• I grew up and still live in the Midwest, so the whole concept of border security doesn’t resonate with me in a local manner. But along the Maine coast, I was amazed to see all the harbor fortifications up and down the coast. Makes total sense, but again, I’m from the Midwest. The only invasion – for example – of Green Bay, WI, will be Packer fans… So I learned stuff!

Possibly more to come, but Bottom Line: I could live there, and I’d certainly go back there again as a tourist.

Maine rocks!

Ten years old tomorrow (Sept. 7).

Remarkable rise; what will the next decade hold?

Android, less ads more apps (i.e. Chrome), other directions?

To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, “What a short, strange trip it’s been”…

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Price winning author/Russian gulag inmate, died today at age 89.

I’m a HUGE fan of Russian Literature, but, to me, Solzhenitsyn was a lot like Tolstoy. Each had epics (Gulag Archipelago; War and Peace) that are AMAZING, but what sticks with me are the shorter works:

— Tolstoy: Family Happiness, The Death of Ivan Ilych
— Solzhenitsyn – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (honestly, one of the most painful and beautiful short stories/novellas).

Who are the new Russian authors?

Last night, we went to see the opening performance of a local community group’s production of Rent.

We had seen a professional production of this show, oh, about a decade ago in Chicago, and greatly enjoyed it, so I was interested to see how this version would compare.

Not bad – actually, pretty damn good.

It was a really fun performance. Extremely well cast, and performed with enthusiasm.

The player cast as Collins had an amazing voice, and – according to his bio – he is still in high school. Man, do I feel like a talentless loser…

And I had forgotten about the role played by the Maureen character – and in this production, she damn near stole the show. A petite blonde with an incredible set of pipes and a palpable fearlessness. And – this is something I noticed – she really was having fun (but in character) up there. During the last number, where the entire cast forms a line across the stage and sings, she was (subtly) boppin’ to the music, holding hands with the Mimi character, just really into it.

The only downside was the sound – sometimes the voices were too soft. Roger was really hard to make out for most of the show, unless he was really pounding something out. Maureen was clear first act; sometimes soft in the second.

But it was opening night – time to iron out the kinks.

Great play – solid, very enjoyable performance.

And I’ve been playing the Rent soundtrack the entire time I’ve been composing this entry…one of my favorite CDs, actually, and I’m not a musical theater buff.

With all the talk of ways to achieve cheap, clean energy and all that given record oil/gas prices, overpopulation, global warming and so on, there is one issue I’ve not seen addressed: Electrical transmission.

The transmission of power over current power lines is incredibly inefficient. I’m no power-grid wonk, so I won’t pretend to know the the numbers, but suffice to say a lot of the potential energy created is lost before arriving in a house or business.

I’m sure there are a bunch of folks looking into this, and they probably don’t receive much press (or funding) just because increasing electrical transmission isn’t as a sexy as an electric car or emission-free solar power, for example.

But if we could just double our efficiency rates for electrical transmission, this buys us a lot:

• It would cut our need for coal at a given plant by 50%. Wow!
• One of the big complaints about atomic power is that they have to be located close to cities to maximize throughput. We could potentially build new A-plants further away and keep the same end-user wattage.
• Sun and wind powers have negatives because the infrastructure required is big and ugly – as with atomic power, as far away from populations as possible. Right now, that’s a problem (have to get that electricity to the masses). With better power lines, this may be possible/more feasible.

Face it, we are working with basically the same method of AC power transmission George Westinghouse/Tesla worked on when they were battling Thomas Edison. Greatly enhanced, but same basic premise: Push power down fat wires; branch off on smaller wires for home/areas etc.

Obviously, the technology has greatly improved, but it’s the same issue as with the hard drive of today: You can dress it up, put pixie dust on it, but it’s still a Winchester drive. That’s one of the reasons why solid state drives (such as in Apple devices) are creating such interest/applause.

Oh, did I mention that solid state drives use a fraction of the power Winchester drives need?

I’m sure I’m missing something, but I never read anything about any radical overhaul of electrical transmission.

My guess is that – if you’re reading this – it’s probably the first time you’ve run across it, as well.