Thank goodness it’s November 5.  Except that here in Georgia we can look forward to, gag, another four weeks of campaign nonsense, as our Senate race has apparently been tipped into a runoff. The Senate campaign ads were possibly the most aggravating of all of them, and it looks like we’re going to be subjected to them, and more, until December 2. I think we’ll be using the TV and radio mute buttons a lot.

I’m resignedly glad that the Presidential race was as decisive as it was, at least as far as the Electoral College goes. At least there won’t be a repeat of the post-election ugliness of 2000. I do note, though, that the popular vote was far, far closer, so regarding this election as a mandate is probably a grave mistake.

I think the real tragedy of this election cycle is the destruction of any notion of the mainstream media as fair and objective. I know that what little remaining trust I had in the MSM is completely gone. Journalism is no longer about reporting, but about ratings, giving the people what they apparently want instead of what they need to know. Interestingly enough, this election probably means the resurrection of the “Fairness Doctrine” — I wonder if its ultra-liberal Congressional proponents realize that it will be a tool that can cut both ways…

I am left today to hope that my Obama-supporting friends and family are indeed correct, and that he will prove to be the leader that this country needs right now. I also pray that nothing happens to him — aside from all the implications of martyrdom, the thought of Joe Biden, or if something were to also happen to him Nancy Pelosi, in the Oval Office is truly frightening.

It all started with my original blog at LiveJournal, which was to be the mis-adventures of a mid-40’s divorced woman. Since I met DH almost immediately, that went by the wayside, and the blog eventually moved here when I set up Art of the Firebird and became a general-purpose blog.

Then I discovered Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon as places to keep track of interesting web sites, and of course I was going to share what I found. Of course I had to claim my blog on Technorati, and then more and more interesting sites came along to check out. When I found about Tumblr, I thought, “Perfect! A place for all the little snippets and tidbits I wanted to save and share.” So I set up not one, but two Tumblr sites, one for personal stuff and one for techie-related stuff.

I resisted Twitter and its imitators for a very long time. But once I started seeing more and more information about claiming your “social identity,” it was time to claim mine everywhere it could be claimed. After all, I can’t let anyone else out there be known as “Art of the Firebird” if I’m going to use that as my artistic identity!

All that has created a monster!  When I finally put together a lifestream aggregator and put every site where I have an account (at least every one I could remember) on there, it was, OMG, 42 different places and counting!  Eeek!!!

So how the hell do I keep up with ALL of them?  I think I don’t. I use tools like Ping.FM (which is a godsend!) for the status updates; the lifestream aggregators like Profilactic and FriendFeed and Lifestream.FM work pretty much on their own; some of them just barely exist and don’t get any attention. The ones that do are the ones I really care about, or the ones that are may eventually be good for marketing. I figure as time goes on, I will keep trying things out and the ones that work for me will be ones that get some attention; the ones that don’t work will at least not be claimable by someone else using my identity.

Who would have thought five years ago that social media would be so, well, pervasive?

Tomorrow probably won’t be the end of the election season trauma no matter who wins. I expect it to be ugly for a bit whether McCain or Obama comes out ahead, plus here in Georgia we are in real danger of a runoff for the Senate race.  Ugh — both Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin (and their supporters) have filled our airwaves with negativity.

I’m so glad we advance voted last week so we don’t have to fret tomorrow.  For the rest of you out there, though:

Yep, even though the NaBloPoMo group is active all year around, November is officially National Blog Posting Month, with the challenge of posting every day for 30 days. I did it successfully last year (yay me!) and I do believe I’m going to give it another shot.  This time might be a bit of a challenge since I’ll be in Augusta visiting with Dee from Thursday to Sunday next week, but since I won’t be totally without computer access I think I should try. Doing it was good for me last year; I think it will be good for me again.

I do NOT promise to stick to any one subject, though. If I feel like writing about lampworking, lampworking it shall be. If my cats do something wonderful/stupid/funny/cute, they’ll be the subject. Shoot, they may write the Thanksgiving Day entry again for all I know. I will TRY not to get too political, but how can anyone help commenting on politics a little bit THIS year?

Stick with me — I’ll try to amuse or entertain you, or at least make you feel like life doesn’t suck as much as you think it does.

I’ve been in a rather dreadful funk for some time now, and over the last few days have realized that it probably is a fairly significant depressive episode.  Or at least it would be IF I wasn’t on a major dose of EffexorXR every day. Yeah, anti-depressants don’t cure depression, they really just keep it at bay so you can function like a normal human being in good times and like a semi-functional one at bad times.

All I’ve really been wanting to do is sit here and stare mindlessly at the computer screen, allowing it to feed me mostly useless information when I’m not playing Sudoku or Shisen-Sho. I’m tired a lot but it still takes me a long time to fall asleep.  My creative Muse has deserted me, the bitch, and is probably off sipping a fruity frozen drink on a tropical beach somewhere without me.

And people!  Oh gods, people are driving me crazy.  I’m just about ready to go become a hermit, or an anchorite.  I keep telling DH that he and I seem to be the only sane people in existence.  This election has evoked an aura of senseless hostility on all sides the likes of which I’ve never seen.  Regardless of the outcome of next Tuesday’s election, I fear for this country and the basic ideals upon which it was founded.

Then there’s the lampworking community…but that’s a separate post for later…

Since I can’t pinpoint the start of this episode, I don’t know how long it will go on.  I am hoping that at least recognizing it will help me deal with it.  I am also hoping that three and a half weeks off at Christmas will give me some time to just take care of myself.  I don’t LIKE being tired and angry and depressed all the time, after all.