Last week was tough...I really took it easy over the weekend. I spent several hours playing a campaign simulation called the Political Machine. After playing out the Bush vs. Kerry election I created my own candidate (me) and I ran in several full presidential campaigns. I beat Wesley Clark and Jimmy Carter pretty easily, but I got stuck on Bill Richardson. I just had to beat him, so I decided to try running Schwarzenegger's campaign. I lost the first time through in a really close election. (I really should not have neglected Alaska.) I got him the second time with a Schwarzenegger - Barbara Bush ticket; his running mate was Dick Gephardt. It was an enormous time suck, but there were a couple benefits: I have all the geographic locations of each of the US states memorized for the first time in my life (how many Californians can really point out Delaware, Kansas, and Iowa on a map?); and I have the electoral vote count for each state memorized as well now. That information will come in handy, well...every four years.
  ¶ 10/11/2004 10:26:00 PM