All by myself (well, with some help from my PHP manual), I’ve managed to make a more sophisticated Election Day countdown for my sidebar. In addition to showing how many days are left until Election Day, it now shows how long ago that same amount of time was, and it links to my blog entries, if any, for that day. (That’s the coolest part.)

Why did I do this? See, whenever I’m counting down to something in the future, in order to get a better sense of how much time is left I figure out how long ago that same amount of time was. For instance, today’s October 21; there are 12 days until the election, and 12 days ago was October 9. Tomorrow’s October 22; there will be 11 days until the election, and 11 days before that will be October 11. Day by day, the past creeps closer and closer to the present, and the present creeps closer and closer to the future, until all three moments collapse together when the target moment arrives.

Does anyone else do this, or just me?

I’ve been obsessed with the election lately. Can we just get it over with? The debates are over, so all that’s left is this swing-state slogging. Barring a big surprise — such as the capture of Osama, a terror alert or attack, some Big Thing that Karl Rove is withholding until next weekend, or some vote manipulation, none of which I rule out — I actually believe Kerry will win. But I don’t think we’ll know on Election Night. Both sides are going to bring lawsuits, I’m sure. Our system is fucked.

Twelve days to go…