Monday Notes:

Election Eve:

• It's election eve and I've been thinking about something Elyse said over the weekend. She mentioned feeling that the current way candidates campaign seems antiquated in that there are much easier ways of reaching large audiences now. Why haven't either of the two candidates tried more frequent use of web-conference techniques as opposed to traveling to four different states in a day? I vaguely remember one YouTube event with President Obama but that's it.
• The Twitter accounts of the candidates are about the biggest farce and most impersonal things I've seen. Unless you've been living under a rock it's plainly obvious neither of the candidates has tweeted a single thing.
• The current election process as a whole seems antiquated. The electoral college is still around in 2012? Come on, surely we should have changed this to a popular vote election by now (just like ALL other elections). This would give states like Oklahoma (100% Red) and say California (100% Blue) the opportunity to feel like they have some participation in the process. When was the last time the GOP or Democrat nominee for President came here to campaign? I can't remember one in my 28 years other than maybe Bill Clinton once.
• In the end we are all still Americans and I'm pleased to have some very good friends who don't share the same political affiliation I do....

In case you didn't know, I am about one of the biggest Oklahoma City sunshine pumpers there is (just ask Elyse). I like to frequent the OKCTalk message boards and seem to find something interesting on a daily basis. Here is a picture I came across today that really shows how far OKC has come in the last couple of decades:

This aerial was taken from June 1970 looking toward the west as Cotter (Chase) Tower was being constructed. One of the buildings that caught my eye was the 33-story Biltmore Hotel (top left of photo) that was unfortunately demolished a few years later. The large construction on the left side of the photo just below the Biltmore is what is now the Cox Convention Center. Compare this photo with the aerial below taken this year:

The drastic change in the skyline is impressive to say the least and there is definitely more to come in the near future.