Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Cabin in the Woods: B

Cabin in the Woods Whiteboard>
Scott didn't quite drag me to The Cabin in the Woods a couple of weekends ago. I was a little more willing to see this horror movie because Joss Whedon was involved, so I figured it would not be a typical horror movie and have a little more wit. Like most movie genres, the horror movie formula is so overdone that even the parodies are formulaic. Cabin in the Woods isn't quite a parody, but it still seemed to drag a bit going through the usual horror movie set-up.

Overall, I liked the movie. Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) were great playing their usual characters. It had a good pace and a quick ending.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

2012 General Elections Results

We were so relieved Obama won re-election Tuesday night. Although I figured the race was in Obama's favor, I worried throughout the evening that this election would turn into a prolonged mess like 2000. When the east coast results finally started to trickle in, I nervously watched Virginia as the experts had predicted Romney had to win it. However, I became frustrated as no one called Virginia.

At 8:00 PM, I flipped between the local TV channels for the local results and the national coverage for the presidential results. Finally, at around 8:15 PM, I was surprised the decisive result came not from Virginia, but Ohio. Although Facebook did crash during the announcement, this year's re-election was much more anti-climactic than 2008's euphoria.

I was a little frustrated that the local results were so hard to find. There seemed to be a technical problem publishing the Oregon results as KGW's website and broadcast scroll showed "0%" or "12345" results. I also had problems finding updated Washington state results regarding the same-sex marriage referendum.

This seemingly long election cycle is thankfully over and now the analysis has been begun. It was entertaining seeing Oregon GOP leader Allen Alley optimistically predicting his party's statewide victory and then a short time later standing in an abandoned ballroom muttering that he just didn't understand how they lost again. Like the national GOP, it seems he really is out of touch with the new realty that Oregon voters.

Don't take away my donkey membership, but I admit that I like Allen Alley and secretly feared he would have been a far better candidate for governor in 2010 than the political-novice celebrity his party desperately chose. I believe democracies require competitive opposition parties and fear that any party can overreach without serious challenge. It would be great if the Oregon GOP sincerely reinvented itself, embraced gay marriage as a genuine family value, accepted reproduction as a personal health matter, and actually discussed what they want state government to do instead of merely reducing taxes and cutting services.


RACE MERESULTS
US PRESIDENT OBAMA
OBAMA RE-ELECTED 303 E.V. (60.6M)ROMNEY 235 E.V. (57.8M)
OBAMA 60.6MROMNEY 57.8M
US REP 3RD BLUME- NEAUR
BLUMENEAUR RE-ELECTED 220KGREEN 60K
OR SEC OF STATE BROWN
BROWN RE-ELECTED 783KBUEHLER 679K
OR TREASURER WHEELER
WHEELER RE-ELECTED 866KCOX 571K
OR ATTY GEN ROSEN- BLUM
ROSENBLUM ELECTED 831KBUCHAL 598K
OR SEN 21ST ROSEN- BAUM
ROSENBAUM RE-ELECTED 47K
OR REP 42ND BAILEY
BAILEY RE-ELECTED 21K
OR BOLI AVAKIAN
AVAKIAN RE-ELECTED 620KSTARR 562K
OR SUPREME POS 3 COOK
BALDWIN 581KCOOK 556K
OR APPEALS POS 6 VOLPERT
EGAN 638KVOLPERT 444K
PORTLAND MAYOR HALES
HALES ELECTED 127KSMITH 61K
PORTLAND COMMISH POS 1 FRITZ
FRITZ RE-ELECTED 91KNOLAN 65K
EMSWCD
DIR 1
TILL
TILL 38KCALDWELL 27KSWEENEY 22KBAUER 18K
RACE MERESULTS
OR #77 DISASTER PREP YES
YES 870KNO 624K
OR #78 CONSTITUTION
LANGUAGE
YES
YES 1,067KNO 418K
OR #79 TRANSFER TAX BAN NO
YES 902KNO 612K
OR #80 LEGALIZE MARIJUANA YES
NO 860KYES 725K
OR #81 GILNET BAN NO
NO 988KYES 515K
OR #82 CASINO NO
NO 1,122KYES 445K
OR #83 WOOD VILLAGE CASINO NO
NO 1,105KYES 458K
OR #84 LARGE ESTATE TAX BAN NO
NO 830KYES 718K
OR #85 CORP KICKER TO K-12 YES
YES 911KNO 627K
MULTCO #26-143 LIBRARY DIST YES
YES 137KNO 86K
PTLD #26-145 PENSION REFORM YES
YES 125KNO 42K
PTLD #26-146 ARTS TAX NO
YES 111KNO 75K
PTLD #26-144 $482B SCHOOL BOND YES
YES 103KNO 55K