So, The Pleasuredome Saga. Nasty, length, and damaging to my reputation. I still have further things to say after my final discussions with the staff, which is to be found in The Pleasuredome Saga - Finale. I'm pretty sure I've been permanently banned from all parts of the site, including that chatrooms, meaning this is over. I was completely honest with them, which lead to the final and complete ban. Feel free to make up your own mind about what happened, full logs are in both articles.
After some time to think and discussion with the staff, an apology and retraction has been added to the start of The Pleasuredome Saga. It will remain online indefinitely as a record of what happened and what my feelings were at the time.
So the election is now over. Barack Obama won convincingly, but there's still some matters unresolved. No one's sure which way Missouri went (not that it really matters), so there's probably going to be a recount there. The senate elections are more important and Minnesota is definitely going to a recount, with Norm Coleman and Al Franken effective tied (Coleman is 221 votes ahead at the current count). Georgia looks like it's going towards a run-off election between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin (Chambliss failed to reach the 50% mark required to win outright), while Alaska is also very close (Ted Stevens currently leads Mark Begich by 3353 votes) and will be decided by the result of absentee ballots. Maybe the Democrats can get 60 senate seats after all?
But the disappointment of the night was in California, where Proposition 8 appears to have been passed. It will be challenged (on the grounds that the amendment qualifies as a constitutional "revision" rather than an "amendment", and thus cannot be passed by a simple majority vote), though it seems unlikely that will meet with much success. There's also debate about whether the amendment can act retroactively or only proactively. The California Attorney General has said that the amendment can only act proactively, so current same-sex marriages stand regardless, though it is likely that will also be challenged. This whole campaign has really been very ugly on both sides, and there's a lot more to come.
Many people have talked about the reasons Proposition 8 passed (increased turn-out of black voters, who voted for the proposition while also voting for Obama, and a massive campaign in favour of the proposition lead by Mormons in the west of the state, near the border with Utah) but it doesn't really matter. All we can really do now is sit back and watch what happens. The whole issue likely won't be settled unless the United States Supreme Court gets in on the matter and rules same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional (which will probably not be for a long time yet).
Still, back to what I really made this site for. There's a new article today, talking about Sky Television. I may end up going back and updating this article as I'm sure we're not finished with Sky yet. For the record, the current total of defective boxes stands at four: two Pace (one regular, one Sky+), one Thomson (Sky+), one Amstrad (regular). We currently have three boxes in working order: all three Pace (two regular, one Sky+). If the Sky+ box I get up here doesn't break within the first year of operation, I'll consider Sky to have broken even on reliability.
Archiving done on the first of a month! I seem to be regaining some enthusiasm for pointlessness. No new article today though.
I'm amazed at myself that I'm still angry over the whole Pleasuredome business. I hate to bring it up again, but two months is the longest I've ever held a grudge about anything. I'm trying to get my mind off it, but nothing seems to work. Any staff at that site are not welcome anywhere I hold any influence. That treatment was a declaration of war as far as I'm concerned.
Unfortunately, I have little else to talk about. The US elections seem to have reached a standstill, with Barack Obama holding his current lead. Predictions range from a slim Obama victory to a complete landslide. No one really seems to think he'll lose while this far ahead. I'm inclined to agree.
I may be getting a wired connection soon though, which won't mean much for the site but will mean I get a faster and more reliable connection for my downloads. It will be nice to not have my connection randomly dropping.