andrewdewaard.com

so its too close to call, it’s gonna come down to litigation, i guess that was to be expected. despite a little over-eagerness by the television networks to call it early, its gonna be awhile, and people shouldnt just give up and say bush has won. part of the reason why gore got screwed 4 years ago was because bush had the momentum, and gore just conceded even though he shouldnt have. and there are gonna be so many cases of voter fraud and intimidation and whatnot to come out in the next few days. what i didnt expect was for bush to get the popular vote. i guess the republicans did just as good a job in getting people out to vote as the democrats did. for the sake of the planet’s future, im going to keep my optimism, but things arent looking good. it looks like bush won. and the human species lost.

looks like canada should brace for an increase in american immigration.

i think the worst part is that yesterday you couldnt really blame the american public for all the shit that bush and co have inflicted upon the world. they didnt really know what they were getting into 4 years ago. now you can, they re-elected him. those who didnt, didnt do enough to get rid of him.

my buddy carl is from ohio, so when it came down to just ohio, i went over to see if he voted. he hadnt. laughed that it came to ohio. and he’s black, part of the minority that is so oppressed by bush. i dont think you could find a better case of ‘every vote counts’. but he threw it away. people dont get it. carl is a great guy, he just doesnt get it. he doesnt know that he is to blame. he doesnt know that he is responsible for so much shit.

there are a variety of reasons why bush won tonite (if he did, lets not be hasty), but the one that chaps my ass off the most (well, along with the lack of young voters), is the fuckin church. christians of all sorts flooded the polls in support of bush because of gay marriage. keep your homophobic beliefs, just dont vote based on such minor issues (relative to issues such as foreign policy, the “war”, the economy, and the environment). i think religion makes you stupid, and there’s the evidence.

(not always of course, but as a general statement, i think its true)

(im also very angry right now)

im having a hard time going back to writing my meaningless essay right now. i am not being over dramatic. this is a huge blow to the world’s well being. it is a sad day in history. despite my constant criticism and skepticism, i am an optimist. i believe we can make things better. i believe that we have to believe we can make things better. today that optimism took a serious hit.

fuck september 11, november 2 2004 is so much worse.

(uh oh, im getting really angry, and perhaps a little irrational…)

well its not over yet, miracles happen. the provisional ballots should lean towards kerry. but he’s got a lot of ground to make up. we’ll find out in 11 days.

halloween is perhaps my favourite day of the year. st paddys is always a good time, as is my birthday. homecoming is usually terrific (though i missed it this year, but didnt miss much apparently). but halloween is probably at the top, it was always fun as a kid, and the last 3 years at uni have been awesome (thanks in part to a string of kickass costumes, 2001-waldo, 2002-freezie for one party, b-boy with jeff and ian for another, 2003-beastie boy with jeff and jon). so i was a little disappointed when i heard that australia doesnt really celebrate halloween, and that most people around here were going on trips because its study week. but thank god for the few remaining yanks who were here who decided, fuck it, were gettin dresesd up and goin out on the town even if were the only ones. so that led to our elite little group of:

elvis

fireman dave (more like a stripper fireman though)

sailor pete

scurvy pirate ladies (sophie, eliza, and devon)

and carter with an afro and a signed eddie money shirt (?)

good lookin little crew arent we?

we had a little pre-game by the pool, then hurried down to surfers where we started the nite at sugar shack with its dollar beers. there were a few other people dressed up, so we werent the only freaks. we got substantially hosed, then owned the stage:

moved on to howl at the moon, where things start to get blurry. i do remember saying such classic lines as “dont be cruel baby, lets have a dance” and “hail to the king baby”. and i do remember tequila shots, and then the next thing i remember is getting out of the cab and dave falling into the bushes and i jokingly say “lets leave him there” (more on that later). something i dont remember is peeing off the balcony and then brett (the landlord kinda dude) who happened to be cleaning the pool (which in retrospect is very odd considering what time it was…) hosing me down. the next day he was like “so did you like that hosing last nite?” and im like “uhh what?” he filled me in, good times. oh, and originally my idea was to go as zombie elvis (for the pure reason of wanting to say “dont be cruel baby… or i’ll eat your brain”), but after doing the elvis part, i thought this looks pretty good i dont wanna ruin it. but when it was 3am i decided i might as well see what it would of looked like, and it turned out something like this:

i think if i had some cuts and bruises, maybe a little blood coming from my mouth, and some tattered clothes, zombie elvis could of been pretty good.

so back to dave, apparently we did leave him out there in the bushes. i think it was more confusion than neglect cause there was a whole pile of us. but anywho, he passed out somewhere among the bushes in the parking lot, where he stayed until michelle almost ran him over with her car. she helped him back to his room so it all worked out in the end.

the next day was supposed to be the start of my “hardcore work on my essays” week, but a brief visit to the pool ended up in a few beers, and then i bought a case, and then dave got punched in the face by some jealous exboyfriend and had to go get stitches, the poolside drinkin continued all day after all the eviction/police report drama, then we went on a mini roadtrip to go see glow worms (?), which was really fun cause most of us were ass-drunk and there was like 8 of us stumbling through this forest park thingy with only one flashlight. another eventful day on the glorious gold coast.

so yeah, me and beer are an item again.