Ah, ya' really gotta love 'em... In another attempt to deflect the issues, some drive-by reader left another comment just now that pretty much lifts a spill of text from a liberal blog that doesn't actually give proof of what they claim. Hey! This sounds familiar... Actually, I think I recently made a post all about those kind of comments! Deja vu, eh?

To make it clear, since you all seem to have a problem with understanding this: I don't want garbage plastered all over my comments section from liberal blogs, okay? If you want to leave a comment, go ahead and actually spend time on it. Formulate your own opinions and maybe do some fact checking for yourself before you post. While this site is obviously a self-published source, I do usually make sure I link to proof of what I'm claiming so you can hear or see, for yourself, in the entire context, what is actually going on. I link to videos... I link to documents... I link to sourced articles... I don't link to blogs unless THEY have sources. I give my take on things and then I give you links so you can go check them out for yourself! Liberals rarely use them, apparently, since they continue to enjoy sticking their heads in the sand, but I keep on putting them there.

I don't want to hear you relay some sourceless opinion piece from some random site I don't care about, okay? Is that really all you have to defend your position? Regurgitated ickiness that you can't even be bothered to give your own insights into? A crude copy/paste job, sometimes even without a link (in which case I use some creative searching)... No time and no effort spent on it at all. Well, guess what? I ain't gonna spend time on you, either!

So, Mister Orolo... Your comment has been deleted! Don't let the door hit you on the way out. (Although I commend you for actually signing with a name and email address, even if they might be fake. Not many people even bother to go that far.)

So what do I see after I hit Publish on my last post? A comment on my Obama the Socialist Revisited post that pastes an article about how Obama has leads in "key states". I don't think the comment was from a malicious liberal, since it was headered with "more bad news", but I'm not going to post the comment anyway. Why? Well, you know how I feel about polls, right? I made a post about it all the way back in June. When someone tells me about the latest poll, whether it's for or against the person I'm rooting for, I will always think and sometimes say: "Well, I wasn't asked." And that's my whole point.

These things are based off of serious statistical extrapolation. Honestly, the 2008 estimated population is just over 300,000,000. That's 300 million people. Of course, not all of those are legal voters, but even if 100 million people weren't voting, that's still a lot of people to extrapolate for. If you want to get technical, you're only supposed to take each state's population, but please, save your breath. I'm not interested in particulars and I only mention it to shut up those of you who would use that to deflect my points as liberals are so keen to do.

But! I'll humor you. Let's take the population of Ohio, which has been repeatedly called a key state in this election. 2007 estimated population? Somewhere around 11 million. Okay. I read on Slashdot that a "good" poll consists of somewhere around 1,000 people. This is backed up by the Opinion Poll article on Wikipedia. 1,000 is a statistically good number to poll, apparently. So see, with the absolutely blatant partisanship the mainstream media has in favor of the Democrats, you can bet your bottom dollar that these so-called "reliable polls" are going into the heart of liberal cities, conducting their polls, and then taking it back to their news processors to interpret the results as much in favor for Obama as they possibly can. They've done this for as long as I can remember and they're doing it as I write this. It's the mainstream media! Anyone at this point who thinks the mainstream media isn't completely in the tank for Obama and has unceremoniously thrown objective reporting out the window is lying to you and themselves, period. There is absolutely no way anyone can believe that and be honest with themselves, it's that simple.

So they go into Columbus or Dayton, Ohio and they conduct their poll of 1,000 people. Okay, well, that still leaves out the other 10,999,000 citizens of Ohio, now, doesn't it? Oh, they'll pull some mathematical and statistical formulae to bedazzle you with how accurate their poll is and it may very well be statisically "acceptable" for a poll, but it does not at any moment give you even the slightly picture of what the voters are feeling like. I'm sure that mathematical geniuses will at this time want to wring my neck and scream at me as to how foolish I'm sounding and by all means, leave a comment and tell me how wrong I am! Doesn't mean I am wrong and I will most likely not be inclined to agree or humor you, but you can leave a comment! That's what comment forms are there for! Go ahead... I want to hear your arguments. Because I have the perfect example that will utterly crush any and every argument you have in support of polling data and how accurate they may be. Ready? Hold on to your hats, folks!

President George W. Bush.

With his name alone, I have flawlessly proved my point that polls mean absolutely NOTHING. Everyone remembers how Bush was supposed to lose to Gore in 2000. The polls called for landslide victories on Gore's part and reports started flooding in that Gore's campaign was beginning to "measure for draperies" and otherwise planning their stay in the White House far before the election. (Kind of like how Obama's campaign is acting right now, wouldn't you agree?) The mainstream media hyped their polls and estimates so much that all the networks were so eager to declare Gore the winner before everyone was finished counting the votes, because "oh, it's statistically impossible for the Republicans to win!" Turns out that there was this little state called Florida that managed to vote just barely enough for Bush that he won the election. So close, in fact, that Democrat voter fraud could have changed the outcome entirely, so that's why ACORN is so important, kids. Since the media has pretty much declared Gore the winner before it was all over with, all the Democrats rejoiced, and then when they heard Bush had actually won, they began their chants of a stolen election in spite of all the evidence (and a court ruling, which the Democrats like treat as Constitutional amendments when the rulings support them).

And then what happened next election? Bush vs Kerry? Pretty much the same exact thing, wasn't it? According to the polls, nobody wanted another 4 entire years of "failed Bush policies" (a favorite phrase with the Democrats, it seems) and he might as well drop out of the race because John Kerry was going to win the election! Then, shock and horror: Bush won his second term in spite of all the polls. The only thing different this election cycle was the new law that prevented the networks from prematurely announcing a winner during the counting process when it was clearly a tactic to sway voters in the western states. The only thing different this election was that the media didn't actually declare Kerry a winner, but they sure as heck let the polls do all the talking.

And they're doing the very same thing again this year. Will they never learn? Polls mean absolutely diddley-squat! If you insist on using them, be aware of this fact and treat them only as extremely broad interpretations of what might happen. Come on, if you poll 1,000 people in a city, then you're going to get a majority of Democrats. This is a fact. Cities tend to be more Democrat than Republican. If you poll 1,000 people in the rural areas, then you're going to get predominantly Republican results, aren't you? Read my lips (or words):

POLLS ARE DESIGNED FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF DISCOURAGING REPUBLICAN VOTERS.

They have been for ages and will continue to be... So ignore them! Ignore them completely! They mean absolutely nothing! Shame on you Republicans who, after this year, think there's still a shred of reality in any major news network today and shame on your Republicans who look at these polls and think the end is nigh. It's not! McCain's poll numbers are higher than Bush's when Bush was running against Kerry. No mainstream media outlet tells anyone that, now, do they? If you really want to use a poll, look at it that way and it pretty much guarantees a McCain win. But don't even do that... Don't listen to polls, period. The only thing that matters in the end is the election process. (Which is being clouded by ACORN activites, but that's beside the point, although completely relevant to the election despite what Senator Government and his cronies would want you to think.)

Polls have always been a pointless way of determining the outcome of elections... As Election Day draws ever nearer, you're starting to see the leveling off of several polls (much to the panic of liberals across the country). They still aren't willing to show McCain with even a shred of hope for victory, but as Rush Limbaugh said a few days ago, the pollsters have the uncanny ability of tilting the results in favor of who they want to win up to and including the day of the election, but as it gets more down to the wire, you start to see some accurate readings. Why? Well, because the pollsters want to be able to say they were right, after all! They want to be able to point at something and say "look how accurate we are! You should use us for poll results!" However laughable it is to do that, that's what happens... But it still stands that polls mean absolutely nothing. Just repeat that to yourself. Polls mean nothing. Never have and never will.

I leave you with this one last example. The election of 1948. Someone was expected to lose so badly that newspapers actually started printing their next issue with the story of how badly the guy lost! Seems rather like the Bush vs Gore debacle if you ask me, but nope! It wasn't... Know who it was? Harry Truman vs Thomas Dewey. Truman was expected to lose... He didn't... At all. In fact, he won by a shocking landslide of 303 electoral vote! Here's the proof:

Republicans have seen that picture an awful lot lately... You Democrats should appreciate this especially, because Dewey was the Republican! Imagine a time where the mainstream media actually tried to elevate a Republican... Wow. Whether or not it was intentionally done, as Wikipedia is so keen on trying to explain away, the fact remains that polls are a sickeningly poor method of predicting election outcomes. Even if you think the mainstream media really isn't biased for Obama (which, if you do, you're insane), there's no arguing that polls have been shown time and time again to be dead wrong and used almost solely for discouraging voter participation. Don't let it happen. Get out there, vote for McCain and Palin and show everyone we conservatives mean business and that we're not going to sit by and watch a Socialist take over this country just because all the lazy liberals want government checks and "free" health care.

Ah, what a year... We have a presidential election between a Socialist Messiah and a Hockeymom Maverick, a Democrat manufactured financial crisis that threatens our way of life, and the 10th anniversary of National Novel Writing Month. To me and a bunch of other people, November is more than a boring prelude to Winter that happens to be an American election month every 2 years... It's NaNoWriMo! And this year is no exception.

Oh yes, I'm doing it again. Why wouldn't I? I mean, sure, I had an old friend (aka: no longer a friend) tell me last year that NaNoWriMo is merely a poor excuse to pass off a paltry 50,000 words of unreadable garbage as a novel, but who am I to listen to my peers? (In fact, I'll bet this old friend is still around... Those kind of people have an interesting way of continuing to stalk you after they wreck the relationship. So I give a hearty hello to that person who's clearly jealous of the fact that we writers have an imagination capable of filling 50,000 words and more.) Anyway! This year I don't have school, so I expect it to be quite a bit easier than last time... Of course, I expect to win like I have the last two years, too! That means considerably less blog posts and gaming in coming weeks, which is always a pain. This year marks the month that Blizzard releases the new World of Warcraft expansion pack, so that's going to be a possible huge distraction. I'm usually good at prioritizing, so there will be none of that at least until I mash out my daily 2000 words in Microsoft Word in an attempt to flesh out some sort of story I won't let anyone read anyway.

Before tonight, I had a ton of ideas swirling around in my head. That's the way things are with me... Basically, I've concocted this elaborate fantasy world and I just chew on things for months and years until enough stray bits actually manage to connect. Ain't got any of this disturbing "muse" business going on, either. This is all me! The more fantasy and science fiction I read, the more little bits of information I get to add to my collection, either as a "don't do this under any circumstances" (which is usually the case) or as a "aw man, they took my idea, those creeps" (which happens surprisingly and depressingly often) or as a "wow, I really oughta use that somehow" (which happens rarely). Am I going to tell you my idea? Naaah! Why would I do that? There's only one person I bounce story ideas off of (and they bounce stories off of me) and that's done in strictest confidentiality with a fellow writer. In fact, we've gone so far as to pitch crossover stories, it's pretty cool!

Which leads me to an interesting idea we've had for a long time... A unified timeline of sorts. Basically, anything I write would take place in a single universe I'd come up with. If I write science fiction space battles in the far future? Fine! That takes place in the 28th century! Got some otherworldly medieval fantasy going on? Right on! That takes place in the 14th century, just on another planet. What that does is allow for interesting crossovers between our own different stories. If the 28th century crew of a starship wants to visit the planet we experienced in the 14th century, then that planet will be there and the crew would have to deal with similar fantasy elements. The interesting part comes when you try to explain everything with enough sense that every element could be plausible in any time frame. It's difficult at times, but that's the basis I have for coming up with stories: They all take place in the same universe and all elements of that universe must be able to fit in every genre, be it historical fiction or science fiction or fantasy. That would be pretty amazing to see in a series of novels that seemingly have no connections to each other besides the author.

So out of many, many, many ideas floating around in my head, I think I've settled on one for November... Futuristic, but borrowing key elements from the stories I wrote for the last two years. My first year was the first draft of a very young fantasy idea that I've had for years. My second year was pretty much the second draft of the same fantasy idea that had much matured over the course of the year. I can safely say that nothing has changed between 2007 and 2008, so I've decided to try a completely different story this year instead of re-re-writing an old fantasy story. (That would, however, be my flagship trilogy if I ever decided to pursue that... Oh my gosh, now you know exactly how big the story is. I've leaked too much already!)

So NaNoWriMo, here I come! Presidential elections? Glad you're over with early! Grumpy old friends who try to discourage me? Save your breath! World of Warcraft? Your sweet, sweet call of pure, unadulterated fun will fall on deaf ears! Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Peter Heck? Er... Well... I'll still listen to you. So nevermind there. But I'm fired up and ready to go! My only regret is that I don't have anyone on my NaNoWriMo buddy list this year... I removed all the people I didn't know anymore or weren't going to do it this year or have never even tried to finish. I don't have anyone to compare with. Well, then again, I guess I never really had anyone to race with since nobody ever cracked 10,000 words, but that's beside the point... Anyway. That's a quick (yeah, a 1,000 words is quick?) note for all you readers out there who might be worried about my lack of posts! (Yeah, I know, that's wishful thinking...)