ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 11:42 AM

I slept good! The best that I've had in awhile. And I got to sleep in a little late too. Lisa was the one who woke me up with a phone call from school: they're going to start throwing away all the signs later this afternoon, so I need to go get mine. There are a little over 200 signs of mine spread out across the county... and Lord only knows where I'm going to put them all :-P Then I called Mom and after that talked to Scott, the associate pastor of my church.

I'm still feeling what I felt last night when I hit the hay: upbeat and impressed and proud and... positively stunned. The thought of tattooing "4,584" on my chest - along with the knight chesspiece logo from my campaign - has crossed my mind at least once since last night. But I know Lisa wouldn't let me do that: a tattoo really is a permanent reminder of your temporary insanity, and it's good to have a wife there to defuse crazy notions like that :-)

There's a few things I need to do today, not the least of which is start getting signs up. There's also some things I'm feeling inclined to talk about so far as what did happen last night goes... but that might come a little later than I promised last night. Later on today though, I plan on doing the thing that I'd intended to do if I had won: even though I didn't win a seat, as proud as I am of my first-time campaign and how remarkably well I did, I think I deserve treating myself to this. You'll find out later on this evening what it is :-)

Okay, off to take down signs.

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ELECTION DAY: 11:06 PM EST - What I'm feeling right now

Earlier this evening, a very dear friend called me up. She said that she knew tonight was going to be "a big night for you". I never doubted her. And you know what? She was right.

This is going to sound completely crazy to a lot of people, but: I didn't win my first election... and I don't know if I could feel any more happy than I'm feeling right now.

Out of 16 contenders, I finished 8th place, with 4,584 votes. I wound up in the top half of the finishers. From the very beginning of this thing, I had told everyone that if I only got ten votes, I would be happy. I got almost 46000% of that. And considering that this was my very first time in the political arena - not to mention the fact that a little over four months ago running for school board was the furthest thing from my mind - well...

I'm really feeling very stunned at the outcome of tonight's election. In a very positive way.

I came into this race with a message. Tonight, almost forty-six hundred of my neighbors said they agreed with what I was saying with that message. For that, for everyone who chose to support me by casting a ballot in my favor, I am going to forever be more thankful than I know if I'll ever be able to show. Forty-six hundred is a lot of people. I knew that even if I was elected, all by myself I could never set this world on fire... but a great flame can still burst from the smallest embers. And there's a lot of potential in forty-six hundred people. If God has used me in this to get just one person to think about what's going on around us, then I fulfilled my purpose in running.

Tonight was an affirmation for me. And it didn't matter whether I won or not. For years people have been telling me that I should seek public office. I had no idea when or even if I should have really sought that. But not after tonight. I may not have won the election... but more than any other time since I first became a Christian, tonight I feel as if I am definitely on the path that God has wanted for my life.

It was a good campaign, and I'm as proud of it as anyone could possibly be. It was a positive, clean campaign that never lashed out or otherwise denigrated anyone else. I would say that it was a very successful campaign even. I mean, how many first-time candidates, with their first-ever political ad - that they made themselves - wind up getting their pictures in The New York Times?

And I'm coming out of this election with a considerable portfolio of not just news-clippings, but three self-produced commercials and some print advertising. A friend suggested that I should set myself up as a political consultant after this. At the very least that was a heck of a lot of creative content that came from me for this.

Tonight, I'm not the same person who filed the papers to run back at the beginning of August. These past three months have been the most amazing growth experience that I've had in a very long time. And the thing of it is: I did grow a lot... but I never grew away from who I really am.

It's late. I've only slept two hours since waking up on Monday morning. I'm going to go to sleep and get a long night's rest... maybe the best that I've had in awhile. Tomorrow I'm going to post more about what happened tonight, and probably include some analysis of how the votes broke down.

But tonight, I get to go to bed a happy man. My wife is proud of me. My parents are proud of me. My best friends are proud of me. And I'm proud of what I've done with this race too. Just think: if I did this good my first time out, how much better might I do if I ever choose to run again in the future?

Thank you for bearing with me today, dear friends, as I strived to give you a blow-by-blow depiction of what it's like to be a candidate on election day... not to mention throughout the process of this entire campaign. I really hope that other people might read about my experiences in running and think to themselves: "I could do that. I can do that. Maybe I will do that!"

'Til later, take care, and God bless.

And to EVERYONE who has supported me throughout this thing: thank you... and you're going to get the proper credit real soon :-)

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ELECTION DAY 9:30 PM EST - FINAL RESULTS

Finals just came in. I'm not going to be going to the Rockingham County Board of Education. But, I did get 4,584 votes. Definitely not last place though. I think this puts me about 7th or 8th out of 16... which is sort of what I'd predicted a few days ago.

Okay, I gotta take Michael home. I'll post more thoughts later :-)

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ELECTION DAY: 9:11 PM EST

WGSR is saying I have over 2,000 votes now. I forgot how many it was exactly: I was way too stunned just seeing that I'd broken into four digits. Not all precincts reporting yet though.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:46 PM EST

Found the page where live results are being posted. But as of this writing it's still just the absentee and early votes. So far I'm nowhere in the lead: 503 votes, with Dr. James Austin at the head of the pack with 1240.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:22 PM EST

But alas... no school board results at all yet.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:15 PM EST

Absentee and early votes are starting to trickle in. They're being reported on WGSR Star 39. We're watching now: Lisa, Michael (who thought he'd stick around 'cuz this is "educational") and me, here at our place. So it's sort of the nice quiet evening I'd talked about, except we're tuned into the results.

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ELECTION DAY: 7:02 PM EST

It can't be said that we haven't at least had fun during this campaign...

And Lisa made me take this picture of her since she got her hair trimmed this afternoon...

I can't believe how beautiful she is. Just look at me though: that's what 2 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours will do to you.

The polls close in less than a half-hour.

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ELECTION DAY: 5:32 PM EST

Michael and I left the place about 2:30. There was nothing to eat here and the boy was starving - and good candidate that I aspire to be I gotta keep my volunteers well-fed and happy - so we stopped at Wendy's and he got a triple-decker cheeseburger with fries and a Coke. I had nothing. I didn't want to eat anything at this juncture. Last year when I was helping Melody Hallman Daniel (who did an awesome job on the voice-over for the first commercial!) with some filmmaking she made sure the lunches we had were pretty light, 'cuz according to her - and it makes a lot of sense - eating a lot increases the levels of serotonin (I think) in the brain i.e. makes one tend to be a little slow/sleepy. That's good advice and I've tried to bear it in mind whenever doing something that might demand some attention.

So after we got this kid fed (Michael doesn't give a flip about the serotonin levels in his brain) we headed into western Rockingham County. We did a few precincts, including Bethany: which I've always thought of having one of the most urban mindsets for a place so admittedly rural in geography. We were at Bethany Civic Center for almost an hour. Then we got on Highway 65 toward Wentworth then took 87 to Eden, where we did some stops there.

Along the way we had a pretty wild range of music we listened to: "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash, "Walking Around In Women's Underwear" by Bob Rivers, "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins, and some stuff from my peculiar collection of showtunes, including the opening theme to the old Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man (horribly dated film but I've always liked it: when the Apocalypse come this is the music that I'm going to be listening to while I drive around the wasted landscape).

So we get to Eden and while we're at this one precinct, about 5 o'clock my cellphone rings. It was Eric Smith, a fellow school board candidate (he's one of those that produced some of the offbeat commercials that have been running this past month on WGSR, and a really nice guy). He asked me if I'd heard the news. I said no, and he tells me: another school board candidate turned himself into police after being caught taking down campaign signs. At this time I won't comment on what my thoughts are on this matter.

So not long after that, Michael and I decided we had done as much as we probably could, and we needed to get inside and warm and dry and I did especially 'cuz the rain had thoroughly soaked the seat of my pants! We got back here a little while ago. He's back to playing Gamecube again and Lisa is gonna make lasagna for dinner for all three of us. Then I have to take Michael back home to Greensboro and then...

...then, I don't know what else is going to happen tonight.

I'm still debating what to do: go to the governmental center, go to this candidates' party at the Pennrose Mall, go to the TV station I work at and probably be held hostage by the general manager until I give some kind of interview (especially if I wind up winning a seat), or... yes, maybe just come back here and spend a nice quiet evening at home. I haven't decided yet.

Okay well, that about wraps it up for this report, but there will be a couple more in the next few hours. Who knows, I might even have something fun to post then :-)

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ELECTION DAY: 12:35 PM EST

Back again, this time from spending almost two hours at Monroeton Elementary a few miles down US 158. This was my original precinct when I first registered to vote. Monroeton is also the school that Lisa is the music teacher at. While we were there Mom came to vote (I guess she's voting for me :-) One of Tom Schoolfield's poll workers let Michael borrow an umbrella, since his hoody was starting to get slopping wet from the drizzle, and that was really nice. Also saw quite a few other people I know but hadn't seen in awhile.

Okay, well...

While I was there I thought it would be neat to see my wife. The thing is, they're using HER classroom for the polling site! So not only is my wife dislocated from her regular classroom today but because I'm a candidate I'm legally not allowed to get too close the the place. Lisa came out about 11:15 to see how we were doing (it's still VERY cold and rainy) but I just had to see my girl again before we left. Well, turns out everything is cool so long as I took off my candidate name tag and we left our signs in the car. So we got to hang out for a little while with her during lunch after all. Here she is in the classroom she's temporarily using today:
We headed back a little before 12:30. Michael and I have opted to take a break for lunch (although he's actually right now immersed in another Gamecube game: this time one from the Legend of Zelda series) and then hit some precincts to the north and west. One thing that is surprising me somewhat: apart from two other candidates, we've seen no one working the polls from the other school board campaigns. That's probably due to nothing more than the fact that this is an at-large election, whereas before under the all-district plan it would have been much easier to work the polls in your respective district. It's much harder to mount a campaign and have volunteers in place at all the precincts throughout the county, throughout the day. I'm expecting more campaigns to be represented as the afternoon progresses.

That's all for this report. Now let's see what we can scrounge up for lunch...

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ELECTION DAY 10:27 AM EST

Back at homebase for a short while. Michael and I drove to Reidsville Middle School a little after 9 this morning. He waited outside while I went in and voted. And lemme tell ya: that was hands-down the most surreal moment of my life... and that's saying something! Seeing my own name on the ballot like that, it seemed so weird. Then I went back outside and it was still raining, as it has been all morning. I had no umbrella but Tom Schoolfield, one of the candidates for County Commissioner came by a short while later and let me have one that he had: wasn't that nice? :-) I think it's like a promotional umbrella but I don't care: it keeps the rain of of ya right? Well anyway, after voting I went back behind The Line (the one beyond which no campaigning is allowed) and we held aloft some signs and I greeted voters as they went in. We were there for about 45 minutes then came back here for a bit before we head out to hit another precinct. While we were at Reidsville Middle I also met up with Lorie Booth McKinney, another school board candidate (she was in my portion of the televised forum two weeks ago and she did a really great job). Funny thing about this election: there's almost one school board candidate for every precinct in the county :-)

Okay, time for some photos. This first pic was actually taken this morning about 3:10 a.m., at the Bethany Civic Center. I already had one sign there but I deployed another one all the same...
Here's Michael outside of Reidsville Middle School, being a good campaign staffer :-) By the way, the t-shirt I tried to make for him didn't work out that hot (it was one of those self-print, then iron-on deals you can buy in the computer paper section of Wal-Mart and such). But since it's pretty cold out today that's okay: I don't want to freeze my staffers to death ;-)
And here's the pic that Michael shot of me from where he was standing...
Okay, we're gonna head out again. Something I feel almost wrong about saying here, but for sake of completeness I'll add it here for the record: quite a few people at Reidsville Middle told me that they either were going to vote for me or already had voted for me. I mean, that isn't something I'd normally report on, but the sheer number of people who've told me that...

I'm not going to speculate. I'm not going to see things that may or may not be there. But I am very much amazed and delighted at how many have said they're supporting me. But I would have been happy if only ten people said they were going to vote for me. It's just that right now... I'm wondering just how far this might be set to go before this night is over.

Well, I'll leave that to the voters, and to God. For now it's just do what I've always tried to do during this thing: give it my best effort, and let the chips fall where they may. So now it's time to visit another precinct :-)

More later.

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ELECTION DAY: 9:01 AM EST

Well, we're off. For me to cast my own vote and then to visit various polls and stand as close to them as legally allowed.

More later.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:12 AM EST

Bojangles' doesn't take debit cards :-( And we were so hungry for some biscuits from there too. They need to get with the program 'cuz they're losing business to the Hardees down the street (which is where I did get some biscuits). So breakfast is taken care of...

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ELECTION DAY: 7:18 AM EST

Waiting for Michael to wake up but since he fried his eyeballs on videogames until way late it may take awhile. He's a really good kid from church and his parents said it might be a great experience if he got to help me today. Basically I'm going to plop this "Christopher Knight for Rockingham County Board of Education" t-shirt onto him and turn him into a walking billboard for me at whatever polls we go to.

I'm getting ready to eat breakfast and get this day going. Right now the Fox 8 Morning News has some outfit called Power Force on: they're a bunch of born-again Christian musclemen who go to high schools and lay it down for the kids. Here's one of them that was just on the show doing stuff like tearing apart phone books with his bare hands...

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ELECTION DAY: 6:47 AM EST

Forecast is for rain today and a high of around 54.

Considering how weather conditions have been known to have a dampering effect on voter turnout, this may be an election where whatever happened during the early voting may be a big deciding factor. When you figure in a race involving sixteen candidates, all the more so. It's altogether possible that there might be ten or less votes' difference between candidates.

And the polls have now been open for 17 minutes. Here we go, fast and furious...

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ELECTION DAY: 4:42 AM EST

I spent the past almost-three hours driving 70 miles across the county, getting signs up at the last four precincts. They're all covered now.

Remember I said that earlier tonight when it was Michael and me doing this that we were listening to that music from that Christian college group I used to be part of? That's what I listened to all the last little while. I've actually listened to it quite a lot during the course of this campaign. It's really helped to sustain and inspire me through everything. I'm glad I thought to put them all on my MP3 player awhile back. And there's another little bit of music, several songs actually, that a friend from college did years ago that I was listening to a lot during this last trip out into the darkness. That went a long way, too.

In so many ways, I can't help but believe that, regardless of whether I win or don't win, God has really been providing for me the whole way through this. Something really curious that I realized tonight, that had to do with why I couldn't put out signs as much as I wanted to last week... but now I wonder if maybe it was supposed to be that I couldn't put them out then. I might talk more about that later.

Well, it's around quarter-til 5 in the morning, and I need to catch some ZZZs. It's gonna be an interesting day. And I gotta see it through all the way to the end. Will try to file reports periodically throughout the day as I can manage it. In the meantime, please keep me in your prayers: they really are what keep me going.

More later. Me go crash now :-)

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ELECTION DAY: 1:51 AM EST

I wasn't able to start putting signs out at precincts until late. Like, after 6 p.m. last night. I got Reidsville taken care of then went to Greensboro to pick up our friend Michael from church. It was 9 p.m. when we set out to get the rest of the precincts...

...and, we still haven't gotten them all yet! But there's only four more, and I think I'm going to knock them out in the next little while. We just came back home for a quick respite. He's playing Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on the Gamecube right now while I figure out the next moves. We tore this county apart tonight, putting signs everywhere we legally could at the polling places. Along the way we had some good music to listen to: the Children of Eden soundtrack, some "homegrown" Christian stuff from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship back when I was in college, and some really weird stuff that Michael, young as he is, has never heard before (he now thinks that "They're Coming To Take Me Away" by Napoleon XIV is one of the greatest songs ever).

Well, time to wrap this up and get crackin'. There's a little over 4 and a half hours to go before the polls open. And I still need to figure in some sleep in there somewhere.

And a-waaaaay we go!

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Worst political websites

CNET News.com has found what have to be the WORST political websites on the Internet for this election season. They're pretty bad, like the one for incumbent Rep. Dan Burton pictured above. I'm just glad that my own site didn't make the list :-)

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How the GOP pimps gay marriage for votes

There's a TV ad that's running here that ever since it started airing, it's disgusted me. It's for one of the congressional candidates: at one point in the commercial it says that he's "protecting traditional marriage with a constitutional amendment".

Here's why it sickens me: the Republicans have had the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate for almost six years now. They've had more than enough time to put a "conservative agenda" into enacted legislation and they've had the political power to accomplish it too. They could have very easily passed an amendment to the Constitution "protecting traditional marriage" (someday I'm going to write here about how it is that marriage - as something instituted by God - doesn't need "protecting" by man). In all the time that they've been controlling everything, the Republicans have done diddly-squat about it. So on what grounds are we to trust them that they are going to do anything about it now?

Here's what I believe: there will never be a "constitutional amendment" against gay marriage... at least not with the Republican Party controlling things. This is always going to be nothing more than a bone that the Republicans throw to the evangelical Christian community to keep them coming back to the polls to vote GOP. It's really not much more than fear-based politicking: "keep voting for us or the Democrats will give you gay marriage"... nevermind that the Republicans have no interest whatsoever in doing anything about it at all. What's more, if they did outlaw "gay marriage" (reiterating what I said earlier: I don't believe it's possible for the concept of marriage to include homosexuality), the Republican Party would have nothing to keep drawing the conservative Christians to the polls to continue voting them into power. It's the same reason why abortion - as heinous as it is - will only be addressed superficially by the Republicans... and abortion as a political issue isn't something they're that passionate about anymore, anyway.

Ya see, this is why my campaign commercials have been so "peculiar": Number One, they're not negative or othewise aimed at somone else... and they never will be for however long my political career lasts. And Number Two, I'm not going to use commercial airtime - that I'm paying good money for - to make myself out to be a hypocrite.

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Three hundred thousand

In the past little while this blog received its 300,000th visitor. Remember that just a few weeks ago the meter was around 54,000 after almost three years of being online. Thanks again to everyone who's helped this site reach another milestone.

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What should I do on Election Night?

48 hours from now I'll be doing... something. I'm not sure exactly what though. All day Tuesday I'm going to be visit as many polling places as I can, putting in some last-minute personal appearances before the voters go through the doors to vote. But for the past week or so I've been trying to figure out what to be doing on Election Night as the returns come in. And... I don't know how I should be spending the evening.

Here are the options that I've got so far:

- Go to the county's governmental center and be there as the ballots from the precincts come rolling in and the results posted. This is probably where most of the news media will be at in the county on Tuesday night. No doubt this is the place to be for the absolute first reported results.

- Go to the TV station where I work at as the results come in there. Which if I win a seat I've already been told that I'm going to have to give them my very first interview if I wind up hanging around there that night.

- There's something of a "party" that a few other local candidates are having at Pennrose Mall in Reidsville that night. I could go and join them there.

- Spend a nice quiet night at home with Lisa, only using the TV to watch a movie, or playing a game together on the Xbox. Go to bed without knowing anything about the election results and wait until waking up the next morning to see what happened the night before.

- Spend the evening doing some personal Bible study... which has really sustained me a lot during the past few months.

- Finally, finally sit down and get to work on the script for the full-length movie project that I'm still planning on shooting next year. I haven't been able to work on this at all since filing to run in early August. And let myself be absorbed in working on that when the phone rings and I find out that I haven't won or there's a six-way tie calling for a runoff or whatever...

- Spend tomorrow finally learning how to make martinis: a project that I've been wanting to pick up since April. Then mix a bunch up on Tuesday night so that I'll be too - as the French put it - "pees droonk" to care about the election results.

- Leave Tuesday afternoon for a cabin deep in the woods, strip to my waist and start primal screaming as a means of exerting all the pent-up frustration and rage that comes with running a political campaign.

- Before the polls close that evening, I leave everything behind, hit the wide open road, and end up hiring myself out to work on a shrimp boat.

So many choices to pick from. Maybe I'm leaving some out: what do you think I should be doing on Election Night? Post your comments here!

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THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER is calling me a Jedi

Here's the item in today's edition of The Charlotte Observer:

May the votes be with you

A Luke Skywalker wanna- be is running for Rockingham County school board.

Christopher Knight has produced a "Star Wars"-themed TV ad that includes the Death Star space station blowing up a little red schoolhouse while the voice-over talks about how No Child Left Behind is "targeting and destroying our ability to best teach our children."

Then the ad shows Knight, a 32-year-old TV station master control technician from Reidsville, wielding a light saber while he talks about giving more local control to schools.

Knight told the (Raleigh) News & Observer that some folks have said the ad does not make him look like a serious candidate. The Jedi quipped: "I'm taking it a lot more seriously than a lot of people do in D.C."

Look, it could have been worse: don't think that the thought of putting my name on the ballot as "Chris 'Jedi' Knight" didn't cross my mind... but I'm not too much of a geek to know how totally inappropriate and childish that would have been (even though that was my college nickname). Still, being officially dubbed a "Jedi" by The Charlotte Observer is a pretty neat thing in my book :-) Awesome thanks to Matt Smith - my co-worker at the TV station and all-around cool guy - for finding this.

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NEWS & OBSERVER article mentions the "lightsaber" commercial

Two days ago it was The New York Times. Then yesterday my hometown paper The Reidsville Review did a story about school board candidates using the Internet... featuring a huge pic on the front page of me from the first commercial wielding my lightsaber. Well, this morning The News & Observer out of Raleigh is the latest to mention my first campaign ad, and I've received word that another pic of me with the lightsaber is on the front page of that paper this morning, too. From the article...

Hopefuls pin hopes on wit
Lynn Bonner, Staff Writer

A mailbox full of wordy fliers, static television commercials and droning robotic telephone calls can take all the excitement out of picking a candidate.

But some campaigns are trying to break through the clutter and grab voters by the funny bone.

Voters in Cary got to see Republican state Rep. Nelson Dollar's head, encircled by hearts, alongside a cruise ship. The ad, which looked like the opening credits of "The Love Boat" television show, poked fun at Dollar's taxpayer-funded trip during the tall ships festival in Beaufort. He later reimbursed the state for the cost.

Vernon Robinson, a Republican congressional candidate, cut a radio ad that's a takeoff on the "Beverly Hillbillies" TV theme, rapping his opponent on illegal immigration.

In a legislative primary in Iredell County this year, Republican Robert Brawley saw himself cast by his opponent as John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever," white three-piece suit and all, alongside what the ad called "Robert Brawley's Worst Hits." It was a reference to an earlier stint Brawley served in the legislature.

Campaigns often use witty ads to criticize their opponents.

(snip)

Not all campaign humor is aimed at someone else. A candidate for Rockingham County school board, Christopher Knight, has gotten free air time outside his county and national attention for a self-produced television ad with a "Star Wars" theme.

In it, a Death Star beam destroys a red schoolhouse while the voice-over talks about the federal legislation, No Child Left Behind, "targeting and destroying our ability to best teach our children."

Knight wields a light saber as he talks about defending the future of the county's children.

Knight, 32, a "Star Wars" fan from Reidsville, said the ad helped him stand out from 15 other candidates running for five at-large seats on the school board. Knight is basking in the attention but said he has heard some say the ad makes him look as if he is not serious enough to be on the board.

"I'm taking it a lot more seriously than a lot of people do in D.C.," he said...

It's now starting to dawn on me, that the image of me and my lightsaber is probably going to be the defining image of my political career for the rest of my life: Truman had his "Dewey defeats..." newspaper, Churchill had his "V for victory" salute, Reagan had his Berlin Wall... and Chris Knight will have his lightsaber :-P

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Video: Three candidates talk about making THE NEW YORK TIMES

Last night about 6:30 on WGSR (the TV station that I work) Charles Roark did a live interview with school board candidates Eric Smith, Richard Moore (via telephone) and myself about our making it into Thursday's edition of The New York Times in regards to our offbeat television commercials. I just got finished uploading it to YouTube. It's a neat little segment with a lot of great interaction between Eric, Richard, Charles and myself. You also get to hear fellow candidate Reida Drum (off-camera). Among other things Richard got to show off photos of his very first grandchild who was born yesterday. Richard's wife Debbie gets on the phone at one point.
I think this segment is a great example of how this race has gone in the past few months. Ya see, this has been a positive, upbeat electoral race. And I mean what I say during the interview: it doesn't matter to me if my actual name wasn't mentioned in the Times article. What does matter is that if the nation's eyes can be turned to this school board race and see how it's going, maybe it can inspire other political races to drop the negativity and embrace individuality and creativity (by the way, that was Jennifer Olwin who first commented about that on the original post about the Times article.) Anyway, the video is a lil' bit of primary source material about this election, so being a good historian I went and archived it and made it available for others to watch. So, enjoy! :-)

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A candidate for Congress that we can finally support!

This honest man should be sent to Washington post-haste!
Find out more about Josh Jennings on his Myspace page and his page on YouTube.

(Special thanks to Marc for the find!)

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Dawn of "The Age of Steel" tonight on DOCTOR WHO

"I thought I was broadcasting to the security services, what do I get: Scooby-Doo and his gang... they've even got the van."

"I'm London's most wanted... for parking tickets."

"Even better... that's the name of my dog."

"Ex-cellent!"

"The human race, for such an intelligent lot you are all susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it."

"Upgrade THIS!"

"What the HELL was that thing?!?"

"Sally. Sally Phelan."

"This is the age of steel and I am its creator!"

"I'd call you a genius except I'm in the room."

"Ordinary stupid BRILLIANT people!"

"The most ordinary person can change the world."

"I'm sorry."

"That's the Doctor. In the TARDIS. With Rose Tyler."

"He's gone home."

"Nothing wrong with a van... I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck."

It's "The Age of Steel" starting tonight at 8 - and playing a few more times over the weekend - on the Sci-Fi Channel. Concluding the story that began last week with "Rise of the Cybermen", tonight's Doctor Who sees the Doctor, Rose and Mickey still stuck on the alter-Earth as insane industralist John Lumic begins processing humanity into the cold-hearted Cybermen. Be warned: this is a very horrifying episode, about as scary as any Doctor Who episode is apt to get. One scene in particular, long months after I first watched this episode, still gives me the freezing willies. One of the better episodes to come out of Season 2 of the revitalized series. And a wonderful setup for events that will happen at the end of this season.

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Sneak peek at this Sunday's newspaper ad

Here's the ad that will be running this Sunday in The Reidsville Review and the Eden Daily News. It'll be an entire half-page... which was a problem 'cuz I had no idea when they first told me about this special deal for candidates about how I was going to fill up that much space. I spent about two days designing and re-designing, juggling around potential layouts... and in the end this one wound up looking pretty good to "the staff" and me. This was the last bit of major creative work that was left in the campaign. Now we'll see what happens on Tuesday.

By the way, the same two newspapers that this ad will run in ran a front-page story today about the candidates in this race that are using the Internet to spread the message about their campaigns. Filling up a honking good portion of the front page was a full-color pic of me wielding the lightsaber from the first commercial. I may never escape that image :-)

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"Okay, we'll go."

Early on the morning of June 5th, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower met with his staff of the Allied Supreme Command, and listened as head meteorologist Group Captain J.M. Stagg delivered his weather forecast: the storm system that had halted the planned invasion of the French coast on June 5th was opening up. There would be a narrow window of a few days in which the Allies could establish a beach-head on the beaches of Normandy. If the commanders did not take this opportunity to launch, they could not make another attempt until the next full moon a month away.

Eisenhower listened to Stagg's report, conferred with Montgomery, Ramsay, Leigh-Mallory and the other commanders, and finally reached his decision: "Okay, we'll go."

And with those words, the second front of the war for Europe finally opened. Eisenhower had done all that he could do: the goals of Operation Overlord were now left to the American, British, and Canadian soldiers to fulfill.

A short while ago I accomplished what for all intents and purposes is the final task of my school board campaign: submitted the ad that I've made that will run in two newspapers here on Sunday. My friends and I are in agreement: it's a really nice ad. In some ways I think that this, even more than the commercials I've made, summarizes everything that I've intended to do in running for school board. I'll post it here on the blog come Sunday for everyone to look at.

And now, like Eisenhower, I've come to the point where there really is nothing else that I can do, at last. I've filed the paperwork, attended the meetings, gone to the public functions, handed out the cards, put up the website, put out the signs, made and aired the commercials, and now am running a half-page ad. Everything that I could have possibly done in my first-ever political campaign, has been done. Now it's left to the voters to choose what will happen next.

After all these months, it's really quite a relief. Now I can finally just watch the thing unfold, and see what happens. But no matter what does happen, I'm proud of myself and of the campaign that I've run. In every way, for my first time out it was a world-class campaign. This is something that, win or not, I can always look back on with only the fondest of memories.

But now, I can finally rest some. Lisa and I might head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday, or maybe go up to Natural Bridge in Virginia. It'll be a welcome change from the past few weeks, and a good respite before everything comes to a head on Tuesday. But now, for the most part... it is done.

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Ten years ago Part 2

To everyone who will understand,
I still remember what happened ten years ago today, too. Don't think that I'll ever forget.

Once again, to those who were involved - wherever you may be - thank you.

p.s.: Hope you'll know that I've kept the faith after all, in spite of all that's happened. But then, there were some really good people that I looked up to then... and I still do.

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I made THE NEW YORK TIMES!

I. Just. Can't. Buh-leeeeeve. It.
This school board race has made it to the pages of The New York Times! And look at what is gracing the article: pics of Eric Smith and Yours Truly (wielding my lightsaber no less!) and a still from Richard Moore's ad. Hey Eric, I should have done what you did and put my website address up the whole time the ad was running... and you thought your meter had been going crazy before! :-)

Here's the link to the article... yeah I can't believe it either. I've been hysterical with laughter for the past fifteen minutes. You should have heard me when I called Dad to tell him the big news. Here's the part that pertains to the school board race:

Local Issues Mirror National Ones, but the Special Effects Occasionally Stand Alone

The school board race in Rockingham County, N.C., has produced imagery including, from left, Pink Floyd, “Star Wars,” and the Wild West.

By PAM BELLUCK
Published: November 2, 2006

The election season is getting punchier in places far from the national political spotlight — even in Eden, N.C., where 16 candidates are slugging it out for the five available seats on the Rockingham County School Board.

One of them produced a television advertisement suggesting that the school system turned children into automatons. It is shot against a backdrop of a Pink Floyd video showing children coursing through an assembly line to the lyrics: “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control.”

Another candidate shows himself brandishing a light saber as a “Star Wars” Death Star blows up a little red schoolhouse. The message: the federal government, a “cosmic bully,” meddles too much in education.

The advertisement of a third contender, riffing on a “new sheriff in town” theme, shows a sheriff being killed in “The Terror of Tiny Town,” the 1938 all-dwarf musical Western.

Not every local race is quite as entertaining, but the Rockingham County election shows how national issues like education, the economy, crime and ethics have been localized.

Mash down here for the rest of the article. Special thanks to the Reidsville Free Press for alerting us to the story!

EDIT 4:16 PM EST: The story now requires registration (for free) with The New York Times website in order to read it. But it only takes a minute or so if you want to check it out.

EDIT 6:51 PM EST: Just got back from Greensboro a little while ago, the closest place I could find print copies of today's Times. I got four of them, and just as Eric Smith said in the comments there we are on page A20 (we made the "A" section of The New York Times... it just keeps getting better and better!). The picture of us is somewhat larger than I thought it would be. So now it's official and tangible: Eric and Richard and I really did make The New York Times.

That just... it's still sending my mind reeling. And you know who I've thought most about today? My Mom and Dad. And Lisa. And everyone else who's close to me. If it hadn't been for them being behind me all this time - on a lot of things - this would never have happened. My being pictured in the Times is more about them really than it is about me. And before today's over I just wanted to tip my hat to them.

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NOOOOOOOO! (Tonight's LOST)

"Peek-a-boo... I see you!"

I so did not want this to happen.

Awright well... who's going to continue building the church?!?

Really good episode though, even though that was the one character I did not want to die: gotta admit that was pretty neat CGI for his death scene though. Eyepatch Guy looks pretty evil. These two new castaways: they're being "introduced" rather clumsily. I feel nothing toward them whatsoever. But we haven't really been introduced to many other Flight 815 survivors outside of the "core" group yet, so I'll be forgiving and give them another few shots to prove themselves.

And ummm... didn't Juliet's "movie" that she showed Jack seem an awful lot like my newest commercial for my school board campaign? I saw that and was giggling mad at how alike they are :-)

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The Campaign: Public Disclosure of Finances

This past Monday I filed the Third Quarter-Plus Report from my campaign. The deadline was October 30th and I know it seems like I waited 'til the last minute to turn it in, but I just wanted to make sure that it was as timely as possible. Every contribution this campaign has received and every cent that I've spent on things for it is accounted for in that report. At this point I need do no more filing of reports unless I suddenly wind up getting contributions of $1000 or more between now and this coming Tuesday... in which case I have to report them within 48 hours of receipt. But like Dad said when I told him about that on Sunday night "How many of those are you expecting to get??"

I've only made one more expenditure (and have received no further contributions) since then. Earlier today I bought a half-page ad in both the Reidsville Review and the Eden Daily News for this coming Sunday. It's a special deal that they've got going for candidates this week only. It set me back $250... but like I said, that'll most likely be the very last bit of money that gets spent in this campaign.

So in case anyone's wondering about the financial end of a political campaign of this scale - and because according to law this is going to be public knowledge anyway that you can look up for yourself - I'm going to go ahead and disclose how much in contributions I received and how much I spent doing this campaign.

The official name of the campaign is the "Knight for School Board 2006 Committee". You should be able to find that if you go looking through the North Carolina Board of Elections website.

During this campaign, my committee raised $914 in contributions. Those came from personal contributions, mailed-in checks and via PayPal through the campaign website.

In terms of spending, the total expenditures of my committee has been $1,513.75. That money was used to buy everything from pens, to domain name registration for the website, to stamps, to the die-cast Death Star and TIE Fighter models used in the first commercial (both were about two bucks), to yard signs and then advertising in print and on local television... with those last few being the biggest expenditures, obviously.

And from the looks of the books, it was the advertising that was the only real big crunch on my own wallet in this thing. Everything else wound up basically getting paid for because of the kindness of the contributors. I am very thankful to each and every person who has thought that this campaign was worth supporting like this.

I'll share this with you, my friends: when I started this, I had no idea how I was going to fund something like this. I prayed about it. And I asked God that if He really wanted me to go for this like it had felt like He was leading me to do, that He would make provision for the funding of it. At the end of it, I only had to pay a few hundred bucks out of more than fifteen hundred: that sure sounds like He provided a way to me.

So this may sound like a weird thing to some people to talk about in a campaign finance report, but I'm thankful to God that He did allow for me to run a world-class campaign in my very first outing as a political candidate. And I'm thankful to everyone who believed in me enough to make a contribution to the cause. I am very, very indebted to them in gratitude for this... and will probably be feeling that toward them for the rest of my life.

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Is someone going "off the island" on LOST tonight?

Last week's Lost was terrific! Even though I didn't get to finally watch it until Friday night because I was so busy with debates, making some other campaign appearances etc. So I downloaded an HD copy off the torrents and Lisa and I watched it together. The whole "Hey Sawyer we put a bomb in your chest" thing really had me gripping the arms of my chair. If there's any complaint I've had about Lost lately now though, it's this whole thing with Desmond and how he supposedly knows what's going to happen in the future. Even for a show like this, that seems... a bit hokey. It sort of has the sense of being the kind of thing that's a sign that a show is starting to get ready to "jump the shark" if you know what I mean. Hoping this is something that won't be abused and will have a sound explanation for sometime down the line.

Well, tonight's episode is supposed to focus on Mr. Eko, who is one of my very favorite characters on Lost. And supposedly tonight one of the regular characters is going to die. Are they going to "off" Eko?! I hope not! But since this is an Eko-centric episode I'm dreading that they're about to pull off an Ana-Lucia on us again. We're also supposed to see some of the castaways make a return trip to the Pearl Station, in the hopes of using the computers there to locate Jack, Kate and Sawyer.

What will happen tonight? We'll soon find out! Just please, please don't kill off Eko. Or Hurley. Or Sayid. Or Locke. Or...

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Happy Halloween!

For the first time since I've had it, I'm not wearing my Jedi costume for Halloween. Just hasn't been time to do much in the spirit of the holiday today. But we did manage to carve a traditional-looking Jack-o'-lantern (which was supposed to have been a cool Darth Vader one but I sorta messed up: needed a larger pumpkin it turns out). I did wear my lightsaber down to the station when I went there a little while ago though. And we've had some trickster-or-treatsters drop by the place tonight so we've gotten to dole out some candy. So we have enjoyed Halloween 2006 after all :-)

By the way, I know I'd promised a "sequel" to last year's popular ghost photographs article, made up of responses that have come in recently to that one (people sending their own stories, photos etc.) but the sad fact of the matter is I just haven't had time to do any compiling/editing, between the demands of work and the campaign. But I do plan on doing that sometime soon, maybe even next week after the election. Yah it won't be the Halloween spirit anymore but when you look at the chronology from a linear perspective it will still be "near" the season, right? :-)

Anyhoo, hope you and yours are having a happy Halloween this year!

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Campaign Commercial the Third

The third (and probably final) commercial to come out of my campaign for school board...
EDIT 10:43 PM EST: I keep watching this and now... I wish that this was the ad that I had been running already. I really felt compelled to make the first one: deep down I knew that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't make that one, and it was either make it now or never do it at all. I like how the second one came out better though: it was always my intention to do a more serious one for Commercial #2 but the reaction to the first one sorta obligated me to address that in the second, instead of using it to talk about other things. This third one though, it's both serious and entertaining and... different. I quite like how it turned out. Will it help make my case about being elected to the school board? Dunno. But I've basically done everything I can so far as commercials go with getting my message out.

But however this election turns out, I'm feeling mighty proud at how I ran my first-ever political campaign... and especially my commercials. I intend to leave them available on YouTube permanently, so that others might enjoy them long after this campaign season is over.

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Straight-ticket voting: A truly wasted vote

What's the point of being a voter at all if you don't even bother to consider every race and candidate on the ballot?

This past weekend someone I know pretty well told me that he couldn't vote for me in next week's election. It wasn't anything that he held against me: he even told me he thought I'd make a great member of the school board. But the fact of the matter was that he and his wife had taken advantage of the early voting because they would be out of town next weekend... and the first and only thing they had done when the got their ballots was to mark them as straight-party tickets. And since the school board is a non-partisan race, none of those candidates were voted for at all.

I like this guy a lot. But because he wanted to vote "conveniently" that's possibly two votes for me that I'll never see. Which doesn't sound like a lot but trust me: I've come to very much appreciate the value of every single vote that is cast in your favor. Especially in a race that has sixteen candidates in it: every vote is exponentially magnified in value compared to those cast in other races.

I'm not going to think any less of my friend and his wife: they're really good people. But they - and too many other Americans - don't value the right to vote as preciously as they should. If they did, they would take the time to both educate themselves on the election beforehand, and then carefully consider the votes they cast once they actually get to the poll. Voting a straight-ticket is... well, cheap and lazy. And in my mind, it's the only truly wasted vote there is. A vote for a "third-party" candidate, however little chance he or she has of actually winning an election, is vastly more valuable if made after sober consideration than is a ballot that's marked Democrat or Republican straight down the line with scarce - or no - thought at all.

Straight-ticket voting should be done away with. Because if a person is going to take the time to cast a vote he or she should be made to consider what or who exactly it is that they are voting for. I say that because the power of the vote is far too much to be entrusted to minds that don't want to use that power responsibly. Come to think of it, any identifiers of party affiliation should be stricken from the ballot too: make the voter think about each candidate as an individual person, instead of someone who's "worth voting for" only because they happen to have a "D" or an "R" stamped next to their name.

I'm not expecting any of this to happen though, at least not anytime soon. The two major part... excuse me the one ruling party masquerading as two can only stay in power so long as it can depend on citizens who are all too willing to take the easy way out when it comes to voting. If people were suddenly expected to vote for candidates based on actual merit... why, what good would it be to have the Democrat and Republican mechanism at all then?

I'm not writing this out of a sense of "sour grapes"... but as a candidate I do now have a much greater appreciation of this problem than I did before. And I felt led to share that on this page.

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Shane's Rib Shack: Another great barbecue find!

" You can probably guess that Shane is all about food. Never trust a skinny guy when it comes to matters of eating."

-- from the Shane's Rib Shack website

A friend from church spent the afternoon with us after the service. On our way out we were trying to think of where to go for lunch and Lisa suggested Shane's Rib Shack on Wendover Avenue in Greensboro (in the same strip mall as the Circuit City). She said she'd heard it was supposed to be pretty good. So that's where we headed.

And I can't begin to describe how delighted I am with discovering this place!! Shane's Rib Shack is a pretty new franchise coming out of Georgia, from the looks of their website. But I think this place is going to be big. Really, really big. It's not the kind of restaurant you usually go to for ribs like T.G.I. Fridays or Applebee's. But it's not a fast-food joint either. It's more like Zaxby's, and I like Zaxby's a lot. Well, two things captured my attention when we walked into the place: the delicious smell of ribs, and the chain's motto: "It's gonna get messy."

Lisa had a barbecue pork sandwich. Michael and I both ordered a half-rack of ribs. I think Michael was the first to comment on how fraggin' huge the portions were... of everything. And let me tell you brother, those ribs were gob-slobberin'ly good!! Especially with that sauce: how I would love to have a bottle of this sauce in my cabinet next to those I keep on hand from Pigs R Us and Williamson Bros. Please Shane, if you ever read this: bottle and sell the sauce!! I promise I won't "reverse engineer" the stuff (you've just GOT to read the page on Shane's website about their sauce. I was honking with laughter: turns out this Shane guy is as good a comedian as he is a ribs guy). The cheese sticks and french fries were delicious as well.

So if you happen to be somewhere near one of their locations, give Shane's Rib Shack a try. Rib afficionado that I am, I was definitely satisfied with the experience of eating there.

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Reidsville City nitpickers quash the Haunted Warehouse

For the past few weeks our TV station has been hyping the first-ever Haunted Warehouse, around the corner and down the street from where we work here in Reidsville. I went inside where it was supposed to be a few days ago and... although I personally couldn't find anything very scary (guess they hadn't moved in the frightening props and such yet) I thought it was a great location for a Halloween haunted house-type attraction. Our station's general manager really had his heart set on doing this. Well, yesterday afternoon inspectors from the City of Reidsville came and effectively closed it down just a few short hours before it was supposed to start. Supposedly it wasn't "safe" enough... when the building in question is no less safe than any other in downtown Reidsville. Some have openly speculated that the timing of the condemnation is pretty suspect, that somebody up high in Reidsville city government "has it in" for the station. I don't know. But it's a shame that this happened. We were using the same building two weeks ago to tape some pro wrestling, and there was nothing wrong with doing that then.

I'll go ahead and state the obvious: Reidsville city government is, for the most part, bass-ackwards. I have never seen a municipal government so hell-bent on driving away small business and other industry. In the past month or so this town has already lost a good store, because its owner got sick and tired of the crazy sign ordinances that this town imposes. And at least one other retailer has outright said recently that it's going to be closing soon because of how the city government has driven away so much business. Now chalk up the Haunted Warehouse as one more casualty of the economic Bizarro-world that is Reidsville. And some of our "leaders" still dare to wonder how we can't attract any more industry.

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Wait a sec... there's a HELLBOY animated movie on Cartoon Network tonight?!

HOW did this slip under my radar?! Guess that's what happens when you're too busy campaigning and being in debates and whatnot for political office. And here I am working at the station tonight while this is going to be broadcasting. AAARRGGHH...

Well, if you're so lucky as to have a free evening tonight, Hellboy: Sword of Storms airs at 9:30 p.m. tonight on Cartoon Network (click here for the movie's official blog). I've been a fan of Hellboy for a few years now, since the night "Weird" Ed took me to see the movie. Since then I've gotten a few Hellboy comics (and the DVD of the movie 'course). Guess I'm just nuts about things like heroic demons and Nazi cultists and the whole concept of free will and all that. Anyhoo, I'll probably just bootleg it off the torrents tomorrow, so no big whuff about missing it tonight. Can't wait to see it though.

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Musical concepts you just can't teach in an elementary school

Lisa - the music teacher at the nearby elementary school - just lamented about the difficulties that would come if she attempted to teach her students about castrati.

I'm inclined to agree.

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A true-life ghost story

Hey gang, I'm currently putting together something for Halloween. Something of a sequel to last year's big ghost story post (the one that sent two hundred thousand new visitors to this site in the past week or so!) but this one is going to be made up entirely of material that people who found and read that post have submitted to me. I've got stories, photos... all kinds of good stuff about things that go bump in the night. I'm going to earnestly try to have that up by Monday, provided I can squeeze it in between work and campaigning. But in the meantime...

I know Marc - also know by his blogging nom de plume "Bmovies" - pretty well. He's one of the coolest cats I know and just an all-around solid guy. Marc is also one of the most talented people on the Internet you'll ever be likely to meet: you've probably seen some of his handiwork and didn't know it.

Well, Marc has posted his own personal ghost story on his blog. It's a pretty thorough and detailed tale. And a compelling one too. In addition to his other talents I think Marc has quite a good mind at conveying a story. Head on over there if you want a good jolt to kick off the Halloween spirit :-)

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Shadows of the Empire: ten years later

In 1996 Lucasfilm launched a unique project with the Star Wars saga called Shadows of the Empire. It was a massive multi-media event that involved action figures and toy vehicles, a videogame, a hardcover novel, a comic book series, a soundtrack CD... just about all the merchandising you'd expect to come out of a Star Wars movie. Except, there was no actual movie. Set in the one-year period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Shadows of the Empire was the previously untold story of Luke, Leia, and Lando's search for the carbon-frozen Han Solo. Most of that had to do with following up on a myriad of leads about the location of Boba Fett. But there was also a secondary plot involving Xizor, who after the Emperor and Darth Vader is the third most powerful person in the galaxy, what with him being a bigger criminal mastermind than Jabba the Hutt. The entire storyline was told through all the associated memorabilia: the core story played out in the Steve Perry novel and the Dark Horse comic, but unless you played the videogame you didn't know the ultimate fate of Dash Rendar, the new Rebel character.

To mark the ten-year anniversary of Shadows of the Empire the official Star Wars website has published a retrospective of the project, including a list of all the stuff that came out under the title. One thing that is still remarkable about Shadows of the Empire: it's probably the first and only time that there was ever a soundtrack CD that was composed for a fictional book (and it's a very good soundtrack at that, in my humble opinion... well worth tracking down a copy).

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Tonight on Sci-Fi: The Doctor will witness the "Rise of the Cybermen"

"Le-let's cover up that noise... Uhhhh, give us Track Number Ninety."

"It's happening again... I've seen them before."

"Because it hurts."

"Delete, delete, delete..."

They haven't been seen by an American audience in 18 years.

But tonight, as Doctor Who continues the second season on the Sci-Fi Channel since its revival, the Cybermen return, in the first of a two-part story that is as horrifying as it is thrilling.

(By the way, here's my original review of this episode from back in May when I bootlegged it off the 'net.)

In "Rise of the Cybermen", The Doctor, Rose and Mickey accidentally wind up on the Earth of a parallel universe. On this "new" Earth, high-tech airships fill the skies of London and we see firsthand that the proliferation of compatible tech like laptops and Bluetooths may not be the best of ideas. While the Doctor desperately tries to fix the TARDIS, Rose and Mickey run off to see what their other-Earth counterparts are like. While all this is going on, John Lumic - the insane but genius head of Cybus Industries - is about to unveil the ultimate "upgrade package"... whether the leaders of Earth's governments are ready for it or not.

"Rise of the Cybermen" marks a reunion of sorts for David Tennant - who just keeps getting better and better as the Doctor - and Roger Lloyd-Pack, who is playing Lumic in this and the following episode. Tennant and Pack were seen in last year's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Lloyd-Pack playing the vindictive Bartemus Crouch and Tennant playing his traitorous son Barty Crouch Jr. Lloyd-Pack does an ex-cellent (you have to say it like the Cybermen of the '80s) job portraying Lumic, giving the role an over-the-top insanity we haven't seen in the series since Davros. Which might not be a good thing since in some ways Lumic here is already too much like Davros, but I'm willing to overlook the similarities on this one.

"Rise of the Cybermen" ends with a terrifying cliff-hanger that continues next week with "The Age of Steel". Combined, these two episodes represent some of the best Doctor Who since the series was re-started up almost two years ago. Definitely worth watching tonight and next week.

EDIT 8:46 PM EST: SCI-FI CHANNEL CUT OUT A GREAT SCENE!!! It's the part where Lumic is talking to his henchman who's demonstrating the "work" done on the homeless guys. Okay well he tells them to march forward and the door opens and they head on through, and past the door we hear people screaming. Okay in the original run of the episode on the BBC, the henchman says that it's too much noise "give us Track Number Ninety". A technician activates a console... and we start hearing the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". It continues to play as we see what's going on past the doors: these evil mechanical arms with things like buzzsaws and knifeblades and injectors and whatnot slicing up those poor dudes while they're still screaming. It's a GREAT scene and... I can't believe that Sci-Fi deleted it!!

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Watch the school board candidates forum online

I don't like the way I looked during this thing. Had I spent a minute going to the restroom to look in the mirror I would have noticed how bad my hair looked. It didn't start out looking like that when I left for the forum: guess the wind tussled it a bit. And I had a comb with me for this sort of thing too. Going back yesterday to watch this from the TiVo at the station I kept thinking that I looked too much like Mayor Quimby during the debate on the classic "Sideshow Bob Roberts" episode of The Simpsons:
Quite a number of people have told me they thought I looked good and performed well during the forum, so maybe I'm just being too hard on myself.

But anyway, if you want to watch the complete forum with all the candidates who attended, here are some links for you (BTW these are all in Windows Media format). I'm in the second portion that starts maybe 20-30 minutes in on the first video.

School Board Forum #1

School Board Forum #2

Just remember: unlike Mayor Quimby, I am literate!

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Because I'm feeling so good after coming out of two candidates forums...

...I just got back from Wal-Mart where I treated myself to a Count Dooku Star Wars action figure :-)

This is what I do to celebrate or otherwise mark small occassions: get a new Star Wars figure for the collection. I know, pretty silly and juvenile. What can I say: I'm a school board candidate who still has a lot of kid left in him. But I don't see anything wrong with that.

Don't take life so completely seriously every second of your life. You can't put it into real perspective unless you take time to let your inner child come out and play some.

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LIVE TONIGHT: Candidates Forum: Round 2

Well, here we go again. This time in living color.

The second school board candidates forum starts tonight at 8 p.m., televised live from the studios of WGSR Star 39 (DISCLAIMER: I also work there as a master control technician and video producer).

Because of the sheer number of candidates and because it really is a small studio, they are having to "stagger" the candidates throughout the two-hour event. The first four listed on the ballot will get the first half-hour, then the second four in the next half-hour, and so forth, up 'til 10 o'clock. I'm scheduled to be in the 8:30-9 segment and so far as I know the only other candidate who will be able to appear during that time is Lorie Booth McKinney.

Now even though I'm a station employee, I have no idea what questions are going to be asked of me or of any other candidates. Which is the way it should be. During this campaign I've tried my hardest not to have anything like an unfair advantage over anyone else: this absolutely has to be a fair and honest and on-the-level election. And I'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Parse that as you will. It may not make much sense to someone reading this who isn't living here but I need to make that statement.

Let me put it this way: I'm more than ready and willing to "pull the trigger" if it comes to that.

Anyway, as with last night I'll make an addendum to this post later tonight after the forum, with some thoughts about what happens. My biggest regret about tonight: I'm going to have to miss Lost for the first time since I really started watching this show... and tonight looks like it's gonna be a hum-dinger of an episode. Oh well: I'll just download it from a file torrent tomorrow morning :-)

EDIT 10:47 PM EST: The final segment just finished a little while ago, between Eric Smith and Steve Smith. I left the station not long after ours finished about 9:20 (and I've totally missed Lost tonight).

I liked the forum last night better, because being in a studio with the lights and the camera and no real audience that you can see does have an impact. But people I know who watched it said I did good. As for the other two in my group: Lorie Booth McKinney did an excellent job and Jon Mason, even though he had just come straight in from work as a paramedic and couldn't have on any dress attire, he was straight on the ball and gave some compelling answers to the questions. One thing that happened was, just like last night, a very vague question got asked during the viewer call-in part and it landed on me first and I had absolutely no idea what exactly the person was asking but I did my best (it was about racial quota and inequalities about... something or nother. I just said that I believe in looking at everyone as equal without regard to race or physical condition). Lorie and Jon thought that was a pretty weird question too: I don't think any of us were able to answer with any real confidence about what it was the caller was asking about. The only real regret about tonight is that I wasn't able to finish my closing statement, because at the last moment something sprang to mind that I just felt compelled to share with the audience about how there are a lot of younger candidates on this ballot and they deserve special consideration because they tend to be the ones who are parents (and in my case the spouse of a teacher in the system). So I wasn't able to give out the campaign website address. But otherwise, I feel pretty good about how I did tonight.

As for the other three segments with the remainder of the candidates... well, I'm going to hold off saying anything right now. Some of them I was very impressed with. Others... I can't help but think they might have done themselves a lot of damage. The better angels of my nature are keeping me from saying anything else about that.

I might be able to have some video up soon of our portion of the debate. Will be working on that...

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News articles about last night's candidates forum

Didn't see any TV cameras but the print media was there to cover last night's school board candidates forum. Here's the stories as I'm finding 'em...

School board candidates fight clock - News & Record

Teachers sponsor forum for open seats - Eden Daily News

Here's a clip from the Eden Daily News story...

Panel members were asked if they believe the school board should have the authority to levy taxes. There were spirited responses.

"No," Knight said flatly. "I think it's a horrible idea. Government has too much power to tax as it is," Knight continued. He agreed with another candidate that taxes levied by the school board could strain the relationship between the school board and county commissioners.

Both stories also mentioned my opposition to No Child Left Behind.

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This week's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us...

Chuck Norris is now an op-ed commentator for WorldNetDaily.

And he's a pretty engaging writer. In his first column he addresses the "Chuck Norris facts" craze that's been on the Internet lately.

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Well this night just keeps getting better and better...

Something just literally landed in my lap that I've spent the past twenty years looking for.

One more key toward unlocking everything.

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Snapshots from the field: putting out signs

Taken this past Friday afternoon by Lisa, while we were putting out signs. This was taken at the end of my aunt's driveway.

They're starting to spread like fungus all across Rockingham County. And more will go up tomorrow...

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