As with most American households, we drink a lot of pop. We go through a ton of it on my gaming nights where 6-10 people consume a lot of beverages. By the time all is said and done, I'll guess we go through around 160 cans per month. Even though we recycle them very faithfully (our recycling can is always chock full!), I still feel guilty for all the waste of having to ship all that liquid. It also still takes energy to recycle all those cans and bottles.

Recently I started using a lot of Crystal Lite to help me cut down. That is helping, except when I need a caffine boost and don't feel like coffee. I also miss the carbonation sometimes. So I started looking at different home soda solutions. I landed on www.sodaclubusa.com. They basically sell you a system that let's you create soda water using a special refilling system and gas cartridges. They also sell a ton of soda flavors. After it arrives, I'll post my reaction to their system and their soda flavors.

This is environmentally friendly  for a number of reasons.

First is uses reusable bottles.The model I purchased (Using a coupon code from retailmenot.com I saved $30!) is the Penguin plus package. Perhaps its the Linux penguin geek in me, but in reality, I thought that the glass decanters will last longer than the plastic.

The transcript can be found here.

"And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from
parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the
forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our
destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To
those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who
seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have
wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved
once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the
might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring
power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding
hope.

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our
union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope
for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

I wept after this point. Just think. We get to hear this man and his ideas in this manner for the next 4-8 years. I'm sorry grateful and happy. What a night!

Starting today this country is on a new path. One that includes all people in the hope for a better life. I hope my 20 month old son Shane can remember cheering for Obama tonight.

This isn't the end. This is just the beginning. The American people now have hope to redeem ourselves from the last 8 years. I love America! I'm so inspired right now and Obama hasn't even given his speech yet!

My wife just said, "I hope there are many more presidents like this for Shane to vote for when he grows up". Me too honey. Me too!

MSNBC has released its electoral voting map.

This looks cool and perhaps less boring than CNN/MSNBC (Fox?... They will be sooooo depressed on Fox tonight). I plan on checking them out tonight. Click on the link above or the graphic below to go to their site. Its being broadcast on Current TV on cable. Its 107 on my Comcast cable channel list.

I also found this really handy election results page on HuffingtonPost.com. It has just about every single results widget from all the major networks and web sites out there.

The Google Gadget seems to have gone down. So I removed it. Go here for the MSNBC Gadget on StephandChadSutton.com instead!

This was the first time I have ever been able to vote for President without a bad taste in my mouth. I was almost able to do it with Gore, but his campaign, much like McCain's, turned him into something he wasn't -- some kind of horrible robot politician.

I was able to choose from the old voting system or a touch screen. These touch screen computers are the kind that also produce a paper record. It did really speed up the process. It also let me review the paper ballot before confirming my vote. Overall it was a very smooth process. Stephanie, Shane, and I went around 9:30 after the morning rush. No waiting!

I'm hearing that there may be over %66 voter turn out, which will be the highest turn out since 1908! This bodes so well for Obama and the whole country. When this many people vote, the true voice of the people is going to be heard. Had this kind of turn out happened the last two elections, I think our country would have been on a much better track. Ultimately the mess our country is in is OUR FAULT. The people voted (or didn't as is the case) for Bush twice. Twice! 

This does not excuse our government's behavior, but it doesn point out the responsibility we all have for our own situation. How about we never again elect idealogs with no ideas (or at least no good ones)? OK? Good!

The website http://www.realclearpolitics.com has a really neat feature. It shows you the poll numbers for each state and how they would call it. But it also let's you create your own electoral map too.

Here is my map. I think the race will go down pretty much like this. The major states being OH, PA, & VA. I think he will also get CO and NM. 

I saw this clip from The Daily Show with Bill Kristol as the guest. You know, the guy that is almost as schizo as to what the McCain camp should do as McCain himself. Remind me never to ask for directions from that guy. He's one of those guys that will try and get you to use all these short cuts that end up taking you longer to get there or getting lost forever.

Aside from the complete lack of direction he seems to also have a complete lack of morals. I guess he's OK with the "I'll say anything to win" morality that we have seen so often from the part of the so called "Christian Right" (Can we change that to the "Christian Wrong"party?).

Kristol is just clearly grasping at nothing at this point. He can't help but point out that it was a very poorly run campaign by McCain. He also admits that Obama ran a good campaign. I guess being able to run a campaign without selling your soul, like Obama has, isn't really all that remarkable to Kristol. It seems extremely remarkable to me. I've seen so many politicians do it from both sides. Hillary did it. Gore and Kerry certainly did. Heck even Dukakis did it. You don't have to say or do evil things when you sell your soul. Sometimes you just look stupid trying to be someone you are not. Like wearing an army helmet while riding in a tank and looking like the Mad Magazine "What me worry guy". 

Let's all take a gander at what Palin thinks is the 1st Amendment.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative
campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,"
Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our
country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to
ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

<rant>I'm not trying to be elitest here, but Palin, whose profession is in civic service for goodness sake, is far from being professional at it if she can get things this ass backwards. The first amendment is so that people can criticize government officials when they say the type of ridiculous statements that usually come out of Palin's mouth. Sure enough the 1st amendment allows her to say those crazy half-truths as well.

This whole "mainstream media attacks me" thing is getting old. Perhaps they "attack" you (I think of it as correcting you when you lie your cold Alaskan butt off) because you are so freakin' wrong. If you don't want to be corrected by the press every minute of every day, how about you do something new and different. Speak the truth and tell us why you should be voted into office instead of bad mouthing the other people.