Slinging Obama

14 days to go until the election, and from what I can see, everything is trending in the right direction. There’s a part of me that is beginning to allow myself to dream about the possibilities. If Obama does indeed manage to win, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’ll be a true game changer in just about every way. New found respect abroad? Check. Forever removing the glass ceiling on race? Check. Reinvigorating the American dream? Check. Then there is the other part of me–I guess you could call it the Cubs fan part–which keeps reminding me that the Democrats (like the Cubs) have a way snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. In the meantime, I’ve become addicted to CNN, watching the pundits and reading into every potential portent.

On election night, I’ll be flying to Asia to participate in a conference in Singapore. I’ve already sent in my absentee ballot, but it was driving me crazy that I wouldn’t be able to watch the election results coming in. If I’m calculating my time zones correctly, I’ll have a 2 hour layover in Hong Kong from 8-10pm Eastern time, which would coincide nicely with some meaningful results coming in…but how to actually tune in? Given any excuse to get a new gadget, I bought a Slingbox.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, a Slingbox is a device that you hook up to your cable box at home, and then it broadcasts your TV signal to your laptop or cellphone wherever you are in the world. It’s a pretty amazing piece of technology. Initial setup was easy, but I did have to call their tech support line to help get my router configured correctly. The good news is that the tech support person was knowledgable, spoke clear English and had it up and running within 10 minutes. Once it was set up, it actually worked. You can even change channels remotely.

So now I’m getting CNN at my desk at work…and assuming I can get a wi-fi connection at the airport in Hong Kong, I’ll get a 2 hour fix of pundits and portents. Or if the election turns out to be a landslide, perhaps it’ll be over by then. For the moment. the Cubs fan in me will remain suppressed.

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