Election night

[suziek]

I'll admit it. I wished I had a television last night and this morning. Huddling over my laptop to watch msnbc was not quite what it should have been--and seeing the president-elect's victory speech on youtube wasn't quite the moment it should have been either.

These moments of missing tv are very rare but this election night was one of them.

You?

[ja mama]

Last night I kind of missed it when I saw people talking about the acceptance and concession speeches and I'd missed them. But I watched them online today and even was able to show my almost nine year old son (who was rivetted because it's so rare I show him a video online, or maybe because Obama is even intersting to a kid?)

Mostly I've been so grateful not to have been exposed to much of the campaigning done on television and trying to explain all the conflicting ads and commercials.

[Arwyn]

I know what you mean about the YouTube experience not being the same. But for me, the real bummer was that I didn't get to hear it live on the radio, because I was in class. I've been listening to all the other stuff (conventions, etc) on the radio, and I like it that way. Fewer annoying scroll-bys and interrupting pundits -- and I'm SO glad not to be exposed to the commercials!

I do wish I had had a TV for the two minutes of Obama's speech, though.

[BaBaBa]

Me too

It's just not he same. It's a good time to have friends or neighbours that you can go over to watch with or a nice excuse to out to bar with a TV (if only someone could watch DD )

[boatbaby]

Hmmmm... we don't have a TV either but we were able to web stream everything live. Didn't miss a thing. Between cnn.com and msnbc.com and pbs online and listening on NPR while reading on BBC we were more than covered. Are your modems fast enough to watch web stream live video broadcasts? That's what we do for things like election night, storms in our area, etc.

Or go to a friend's house and make a party out of it.

:

[eurobin]

Man, I dunno. I have (non-cable) TV so I was able to watch Obama's victory speech live. But I was overseas when the Red Sox won their first world series and as kid born and raised in New England, it was almost as significant. I watched the Red Sox online for those games.

I think between over the air TV, radio, internet, etc... you really have to work to isolate yourselves these day.

[foodmachine]

Originally Posted by Arwyn

I do wish I had had a TV for the two minutes of Obama's speech, though.

Youtube only had 2 minutes videos (at least Wednesday morning). The speech was 18 minutes! See msnbc for the whole thing.

[suziek]

Sure we can web stream but my laptop is tiny and the volume isn't too loud. I'd have loved to go to a friend's house but with 4 kids in tow and a husband nowhere in sight (he's in Afghanistan at the moment) those kinds of invites aren't too easy to come by. Plus the main action--speeches, states being called--occurred late night. In hindsight, I should have hired a baby sitter ad spent part of the night out among friends. It would have been fun.

I do love the radio, but this was one night I would have loved staying up until dawn watching the election results coming in on a big screen. Once a lifetime kind of thing.

Still, mine is a minor complaint. This is a great, great moment in history and I'm savoring every minute of it.

[zinemama]

I took my 8yo over to a friend's house with a TV for the big event. There are some things TV does well, and election night is one of them. I wanted him to be surrounded by a bunch of excited people, eyes glued to the screen - and he was!

[MommyLady]

My husband and I stayed up and watched the election results update on the New York Times website and also CNN. Didn't catch the speeches until the next morning, but the whole thing was on the New York Times page, and my 3 year old was also riveted. She asked to see it a second time.

It was interesting to see the coverage on the Internet. I kept reading things like "such and such network has called Pennsylvania", so even though it wasn't TV coverage, it was coverage of what was happening on TV. Really bizzare.

[laohaire]

Heh, funny. DH and I were struck by the same urge on Tuesday. He went hunting around for our old rabbit ears (haven't used them in 4 years - totally free of TV programming, though not DVDs). He spent a while trying to find a channel with any reception, and finally got (some of) NBC.

We had a blast! It was a lot of fun watching. Rabbit ears are already away but no regrets on dragging them out!

[Elizabeth2008]

we went to an election party so I could see it, but the funny thing was I found the tv coverage a bit jarring and loud. I ended up huddling over my laptop to view the results and see what precincts had reported. DS was oblivious and was upstairs playing with the other kids. I had to leave before the victory speech to get DS home and to bed so I ended up listening to that on the radio on the drive home. It's all good!