Posted by Mike Blake
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:46:00 GMT
If the election were held today, here’s the result.
(Analysis of each swing state is below.)
<p><strong>><a href='http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/'>2008 Election Contest: Pick Your President</a></strong> – Predict the winner of the 2008 presidential election and enter to win a $500 prize.</p>
Swing States:
Colorado
Barely Obama’s, and historically Republican, but holding the Democratic convention here turned out to be brilliant. McCain didn’t even get it back during the GOP convention, so I think Obama wins Colorado.
Ohio
McCain’s most brilliant move is the Sarah Palin pick. The Hockey Mom with the folksy accent wins over the suburban Ohio family and keeps Ohio a red state.
Pennsylvania
Democrat in the last four elections, and should stay that way since McCain couldn’t manage to take the lead here even during the post convention bounce.
Florida
No need for Katherine Harris’s votes this time. McCain has a good lead and should keep the Republican trend.
Nevada
Another Republican state, and McCain is hanging on tough here, although a bit closer than Florida, it will likely stay red.
New Hampshire
For every other swing state, I’m predicting a win for the candidate with a slight lead in the polls,and backing it up with historical precedence in that state. That strategy leaves New Hampshire open.Since McCain fared better here in the primaries than Obama did, and he has a slight lead today in this University of New Hampshire poll , I gave it to him. Plus that leaves us with the fascinating result of an Electoral College tie.
Virginia
Although Virgina was tied for a while, McCain seems to be pulling away. And Republican margins of victory in prior elections have been quite large.
Wisconsin
If you border more than one Great Lake, you’re an Obama state. Even taking advantage of delegate strippers won’t change that.
Posted by Mike Blake
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:45:18 GMT
I’ve created a new AppTrain blog to focus on my Web Application Company’s efforts. I’ll try to keep posts about Ruby, Rails, and Web Application Development there, and keep Martinicity as what it was originally, my personal blog. Martinicity is a state of mind man.
Please click above to support the rehabilitation of John “Chip” Cusack.
Last week I played four golf courses in Orlando with four of the Cusack brothers. But there was one Cusack brother missing. From the Raffle flyer:
> Last September, John was taking a bike ride in his Northport neighborhood with his son when he fell off his bike and suffered a severe head trauma. He was airlifted to Stonybrook Hospital, had emergency brain surgery and began the long, painful process back.
Posted by Mike Blake
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:54:00 GMT
In a freak accident back in September my friend John Cusack fell off a bicycle in Northport, NY and suffered a serious head injury. It’s been a very painful year for the Cusack family and friends. Obviously it saddened me deeply to learn that Brian Maguire suffered a similar injury.
In John’s case, the waking up process was very gradual. After about a week in an induced coma similar to Brian’s, John began to show signs of life. The first sign of a functioning brain was the ability to blink when asked to blink. Slowly, day after day, there were subtle improvements. Response to stimuli, Open eyes tracking movement . At some point John was moved from a ventilator to a trachea. Then there was recognition of friends and family. Eventually there was movement of limbs and talking, (although talking is nearly impossible with the trachea.) . Now after a cranioplasty to restore his skull, John is scheduled to be moved to a Rehabilitation Center today where he will relearn basic muscle movements, and hopefully walk again.
The Cuscacks have set up a site here if you’d like to learn more. John Cusack .
With a brain injury, there is always hope. I pray that good news continues to break for both John and Brian, and however long it takes, I hope I can spend time with them again in this world.
Posted by Mike Blake
Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:46:00 GMT
Yesterday The South Carolina news station WLTX ran this news blurb about my brothers paper, Columbia Citypaper . It’s really not a big deal on the surface, some restaurant owner doesn’t want the paper there anymore because of the content of an ad. However what’s disconcerting is that the news station itself decides to blame the story on Columbia Citypaper. The first words of the story are “A Columbia newspaper is causing controversy …” Later in the story my brother Paul explains that he got a call a week ago asking him not to distribute the paper to that particular restaurant, and he was glad to comply.
WLTX Generates a controversy
A week later, after the issue has been easily resolved, WLTX makes this their top story. So who’s trying to cause controversy? WLTX is. And they have the audacity to start the story with “A Columbia newspaper is causing controversy ..” a blatant lie. The reporting gets more peculiar as they proceed to air what is a free add for the local restaurant. There is a couple seconds of Paul Blake saying they no longer deliver to that restaurant at the request of the owners. Then Paul does something interesting, and makes an intelligent point right in the middle of their fluff piece. He says “I just don’t think graphic language leads to any irresponsible behavior.”
Biased Flag Waving
The point of course goes ignored. What follows is a tirade about an “argument as american as the flag flying over the restaurant”, completely ignoring the point made by Paul, who happens to have a flag displayed in the window over his shoulder. Columbia Citypaper’s flag gets no mention though. The news station does take another dig at Columbia Citypaper by saying “Check our web site for a list of other sites that have banned the paper.” They fail to mention any of the reasons the other places have banned it. They also fail to mention their source, Columbia Citypaper which playfully publishes a list of establishments that ban them every week.
Speaking of Fuck
This particular ban was due to the use of foul language in an ad. David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of the Rails web framework (which powers the Columbia Citypaper site) recently made a couple posts about colorful language. He point’s out that swearing at work boosts morale . This is far too interesting though for use on an evening tv news blurb.
An epidemic?
Last week here in Orlando, FL , police arrested employees of The Orlando Weekly because of ads that paper publishes. I’m serious, They were arrested for publishing an ad. Now I’m concerned. Can this happen to anyone who works for a newspaper? Some writers like to imply that the US government is behind
current attitudes towards the media. Stories like the one in Orlando make those arguments more plausible. When is it time to fight back, when you hear about any alleged rights violation? When someone you know has their right’s violated? Or do you wait until it’s a relative?
Posted by Mike Blake
Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:57:00 GMT
My family and I had a great weekend at the end of August in Cleveland Ohio. My Mom’s side of the family , The Corrigans, had a reunion at the North Chagrin Nature Center in Lake County, OH. This was the first time all seven of us have been together in about five years.
The Blakes are, from left to right, Conny, Brian, Michael, Richard, John, Paul, and Maureen.
Posted by Mike Blake
Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:10:00 GMT
At some point in my childhood, one of my four younger siblings coined the phrase geeking out to call attention to someone was uncontrollably excited. If one of us started geeking out the rest of us would be quick to call them on it. The only known cure was to hurl the offender into a pile of freshly raked leaves, a snow bank, or a sprinkler.
Well I can’t deny it, I am very excited about attending BarCampOrlando.
Come geek out with us at Taste on Sunday September 23rd and discover why Orlando is quickly becoming one of the top technology centers in the country. And no worries; there will be no leaves, sprinklers, and certainly no snow anywhere near Taste. Just a full bar, awesome food, and great presentations from some of the leading minds in Orlando (and me).
Posted by Mike Blake
Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:47:00 GMT
Quoc Van came to my house a few weeks ago. He’s an extremely bright guy, and is running for congress in the 8th Congressional District here in Florida. I’m not kidding you, I got the sense that I had just met the next Barack Obama.
Quoc needs signatures from 1% of registered voter’s here in the 8th district in order to appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary. I admire Quoc’s grass roots effort so I was happy to sign.
2. Fill it out.
b. Check major candidate and put in “Democratic party” on line 3
c. Put in “U.S. House of Representative in the 8th congressional district of Florida on line four
d. Fill in your information in the boxes.
a. Put in "Quoc Van" on line 2 where it says name.
