The way the American election works rather confuses me. Seriously, they vote for everything at the same time it seems. The President, the Governors, the Senate, assorted acts and laws and whatnot. And for those rejoicing over Obama’s win over McCain, you’re all forgetting something. Obama had 52,658,842 votes. McCain? 48,653,717. Sure, that seems like a huge difference (off by about 4 million votes) but I like statistics. That’s a hell of a lot of people who voted for the one with the donkey and a lot of people who voted for the one with the elephant (Can someone tell me why they use an elephant and a donkey? Is there some kind of cultural significance? Because I may not be a zoologist, but I’m pretty sure elephants aren’t native to the United States.).

Anyways, enough with the election talk. I had enough of that shocked down my throat (erm, into my ears) with listening to any of the podcasts that I regularly listen to and hearing people who usually offer wonderfully witty but sage advice telling me to go and vote right this very instant. I’m sorry? I’m Canadian? I don’t vote in the US presidential election because I don’t hold a dual citizenship? I feel like they’re expecting me to apologize for being born on this side of the border. But I digress. So onto more interesting things!

I finished the chapter 11 questions for my Family Studies class tonight. It was all about adolescents and the changes that teens go through (also talked about STDs – in depth about chlamydia, suicide, depression, pregnancy, alcohol, drug use and eating disorders). Always fascinating, I know. For instance, did you know that girls are more depressed than boys? However, boys have a higher suicide rate than girls but girls have a higher rate of attempted suicide than boys (they use less-effective suicide methods).

I have also actually been able to log into the NaNoWriMo forums without having to wait for 10 minutes per page. I’m excited. This means I can actually update my word count (holding steady at 18,069 words since this afternoon as I haven’t worked on it since getting home) without having to wait five minutes only for it to pop up telling me that the server is busy. Yes, I realize that the server is busy – that’s why it’s taking so long to get anywhere! I’m hoping that I’ll be able to find the room that was reserved for the write-ins in the building tomorrow – I had issues attempting to find it on Monday. I’m potentially geographically challenged? It’s also a rather hidden room so I don’t know. We’ll see!

6 Responses

  1. Yeah.. it is confusing. Im American and I dont even get it. Im surprised he won to be honest. I knew it’d be close but I figured that McCain would take it. Not that Im complaining.

    I really really need to work on my novel. I was going to today but Katlynn got bored easily so I spent nine hours entertaining her. Bah.

    Goodluck tomorrow.

  2. Haha well lucky me I live in Australia and don’t have to have anything to do with it. But go Obama.

    Congrats on finishing the questions. An interesting topic though. I didn’t know us girls are more depressed than boys! Woah. Boys are dumber though, right? Hahaha.

    Wow, you’re going really well, so many words already. :p

  3. Its a confusing system but one of the most democratic in the world (in England ours isn’t democratic in any sense of the word but no sensible party would change it because it works in their favour). But remember, obama won 349 electoral college votes, with mccain with only 162.. and that at the end of the day is what mattered.A lot of people I know have been complaining about how much coverage its had here too, but personally i’m all for it because at the end of the day who became president does have an effect on the UK and its something i’m interested in. If you’re not i can understand its got to be annoying.

    Family studies sounds very like my sociology a level and wild module in 1st year at uni. Do you enjoy it? I always found it dead boring!

  4. The whole boys/girls depression/suicide thing is interesting to me. I learned about it too, in a psychology class. My professor explained that it’s because girls are assaulted by all of these images of perfect females in the media, girls they think they have to look like or they’re not acceptable. I mean, as much as I deny that I’m not affected by it, I’d love to have a body like Christina Aguilera or someone.
    As for boys, they’re apparently more likely to use guns to kill themselves, which obviously do a more thorough job than overdosing or slitting wrists.

    Wow, what a depressing topic for my first comment. lol. I absolutely love your blog, by the way. I found it through NaNoWriMo.

  5. As a silly American, I can explain to you. ^_^
    Republicans picked up the image of the elephant a long time ago, thanks to a political cartoonist who depicted the party as such, due to their tendency to be “large” and powerful, as well as in ideals, that sort of thing. =P The Democratic donkey came about in the same way, except that the cartoonist was implying that Democrats are jackasses. Weird how things stick around, eh? =P
    And I’m not sure why we vote for a whole ton of stuff on one day. *shrug* There are actually other days voting takes place occasionally, as well, but the presidential one just gets a lot of attention, for obvious reasons. =P

    The slowness of the NaNoWriMo site frustrates me as well. v_v I never bother to go to the forums, just because of how long everything takes. Sigh. =P
    But it’s good to hear that your novel is going well! =D

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