Countdown

[oloriel]

Have a little anecdote.

Not quite a year ago - 11 months, more like - my Japanese host mother, after watching the news, turned to Peter and me and asked, "Who do you vote for, Hillary or Obama?"

Japanese television is notoriously bad and focuses, even more than television anywhere does (or so it feels), mostly on what happens within the own borders (the only news from Germany I got there was something about "Kunuto-kun", i.e. Knut the little polar bear who was no longer quite so little). But the American pre-election hassle made it into the news even then. And so Kazuyo said, one evening, "Who do you vote for, Hillary or Obama?"

I pointed out that I was not American and thus didn't have any say in this, and Peter said that he wasn't registered to vote, which made for a short distraction because neither in Germany nor in Japan do you need to register in order to vote: When you reach voting age, you're registered automatically.
"But if you got to vote," Kazuyo then said, "would you rather vote for Hillary or for Obama?"
And then she added something surprisingly blunt and decisive and un-Japanese: "After all, young, intelligent people like you wouldn't vote for McCain, no?"

...
So the big day (for better or worse) is almost upon us. I am not going to stay awake and watch the big N24 election night coverage - why should I stay awake all night in the middle of the week if, come morning, the decision still hasn't been made? Just for more documentaries and arguments - that we have been subjected to for the past two years anyway?
But I will cross my fingers.

I am not entirely starry-eyed, and I do not honestly believe that a victory for Obama would ring in a new golden age for the world. But even so it would be so much better than the alternative.
Well, we can always hope.

- - -

In completely unrelated news, NaNo has begun, and at least during these first three days I have somehow managed to be a mean, lean writing machine in between work at work, work on the house, and general cases of real life.

6,780 / 50,000 (13.6%)

I have a list of 36 keywords for the plot. So far I have not progressed beyond the first, which as you can see has taken almost 7000 words. If it goes on like this, the story will need more than 200.000 words rather than 50.000.

Thankfully I don't have to finish the entire story in order to finish NaNo.

- - -

Darcy hasn't returned from this evening's excursion yet. Likely he's just busy doing something exciting and not feeling like coming back inside; but as we had visitors a bit earlier whom we helped loading a lot of our old furniture into their car, we are somewhat (irrationally, hopefully) worried that he climbed into the car unseen and is now on the Autobahn on the way to Darmstadt. >_>

Comments

[vashachu.livejournal.com]

I still find it fascinating how the rest of the world follows US politics. My dad travels the world and has told me it's sad to him how so many know more about our candidates than those who reside in the US. I don't mind saying (and you probably already knew, from my posts) that I'm voting for Obama. I don't expect a complete 180, or even a 90, but I am hoping for a start..a plan, hopefully long-term, to put our country in good standing with the world, and with those who aren't CEOs of companies. I'm very excited about this election. I told my coworker I'm going to cry no matter what the outcome, though it will be 2 very different sort of tears.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

I'm worried about many things... the Bradley effect, the fact that votes are being counted electronically, and the possiblity of a manufactured terrorist event to scare us into voting for the hawk... or create a situation where the government can declare martial law, and suspend the electoral process.

But... I'm also optimistic that some kind of good will come out of this election.

And I'm always amused by foreign interest in US elections, as well. A British friend of mine once commented that, for her, it was like watching a bonus episode of The West Wing.

[mirien.livejournal.com]

I am not entirely starry-eyed, and I do not honestly believe that a victory for Obama would ring in a new golden age for the world. But even so it would be so much better than the alternative.

My sentiments exactly.

[dame_grise]

Good word count.

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

am not entirely starry-eyed, and I do not honestly believe that a victory for Obama would ring in a new golden age for the world. But even so it would be so much better than the alternative.

Same here!

Re: cat: we always had the same fears because our own cat LOVED craftsmen and would climb around in their van when we had painters or plumbers or that sort of thing around.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I am not entirely starry-eyed, and I do not honestly believe that a victory for Obama would ring in a new golden age for the world. But even so it would be so much better than the alternative.
Well, we can always hope.

I am very much in agreement with this.

As you know, my general knowledge on Japanese language, culture and (Eru forbid!) politics is a rather sparsely furnished department... (although I read/saw somewhere that 'Obama' in Japanese means 'little beach' and there is a town actually called that somewhere in Japan, so much for trivia) you said Kazuyo's stance was surprising - would you elaborate on that? (Forgive the possibly stupid question.)

Also, good luck finding Darcy. *hugs*

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It's not Kazuyo's stance that was surprising - her husband, my host father, worked for the Japanese equivalent of the Democrats - but that she stated it so openly and decisively. Normally, Japanese people go to pains in order to hide their own opinion really well until they know what the majority thinks, so disagreement or (Eru forbid!) arguments are avoided. Japanese people - unless they have spent a long time abroad - hate being forced to answer something by "yes" or "no", and even when their opinion is "no", they may well say "yes, I see what you mean" in order not to affront the other. Accordingly they are also reluctant to say something that needs a "yes" or "no" answer, and certainly not one that leaves only one "right" answer.
Then again this rule doesn't apply to rhetoric questions (like "Did you have fun?" when you come back from the cinema) which are considered safe ground. So I suppose if she actually "holds this truth to be self-evident" that no intelligent young person would ever vote for McCain, and that everybody believe the same, the bluntness is no longer surprising, because at that point the question is turned rhetoric. (Still such a firm opinion feels strange in a Japanese). Of course she may also have talked like this because Peter and I aren't Japanese anyway, and she never would've said this to her Japanese friends...

Yeah well, and ôsama means king in Japanese. Some trivia is just too trivial to excite much interest. ;)

We found him; he was running around somewhere outside all night.