I was looking forward to staring at a map of the US all night, watching reporters talk about the same thing over and over for hours upon hours, as the states slowly would start turning from grey to blue or (dare I say it) red.
I figured the news casters would be cautious before coloring in each state (especially given the debacle of 2000, when I opened up a bottle of champagne right before they took Florida away), so I decided it would be safe to wait till I came home to follow the coverage . . . but nope, this time, they called it so fast, that I was still on the 405, headed home from work when history was made.
Sure, I made it home for one amazing speech from a future president that I helped elect. But, since this is one of the few times a year I enjoy the news, I am left feeling a bit cheated. Instead of the exciting night I had planned of watching the country turn it's true colors, there was no map on the TV screen; instead, the news was reporting on the Internet. They actually had a reporter searching the web for election coverage posted online by ordinary users and such. After watching the reporter take me to flickr, youtube, and the like, I finally had enough of watching the Internet on the news, and decided to get over my laziness and go straight to the source.
As a result, I've spent the greater part of the evening staring and clicking at maps online, examining the different percentages of each state, and learning random useless statistics that no one cares about, such as the fact that that biggest Obama loving state (although it's not technically a state) was Washington D.C., where Obama received 97% of the vote, and the biggest McCain loving state was Oklahoma (but McCain only took 61%). I was no longer a passive media watcher, I was interacting. True, at first I still felt like I was missing out on the excitement of a full night of news coverage, but the Internet was becoming a nice efficient consolation prize (that is until I got board and decided to blog).
So, thanks to being able to perform my very own Internet search, I've gotten my news fix, and, more importantly, now I remember why I stopped watching the news in the first place.
As an added bonus, Obama's victory has been a pleasant distraction from the disappointing fact that "No on Proposition 8" in California is not looking good . . . all in all it's been a great day to be an American and a computer owner (although I am not to sure how I feeling these days about California).
P.S. If you missed Obama's acceptance speech, I highly recommend youtubing it!
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