The brouhaha

I can't say that I'm really that surprised, but I'm starting to feel a little ill.

Again with the stomping of the feet

So, I realize I've jumped on the bandwagon a little late here with the whole "blogging" thing. I tried a LiveJournal once , but that didn't go too well. I just have so many thoughts on my way home from work everyday that I think need to be shared with the world, and this is a great outlet to do so. Or maybe I just want to feel included. All the lovely ladies (plus Zieak!) listed to the right of this post are so side-achingly funny at times, and I want to reach that level, if at all possible.

While walking to work a few days ago, I passed this woman standing in front of the parking lot across from the college. She looked quite distressed, and as I approached she asked if I had change for 10 dollars. I said no, because I honestly had no cash, and she STOMPED HER FOOT. Just one. In that haughty way you imagine Veronica might have in ye old Archie comics. And she also let out something between a gasp and a grunt; if she were a comic her text bubble would have read "!!Pout!!" Then she said, "Well, can you just put some money in here for me?" Why? Why would she ask me that? If she's not willing to shell out 10 bucks to park, why would a perfect stranger cough up a few dollars for the same cause?

I entered almost 700 email addresses into a database today. I am amazed at the addys some people come up with. For every firstname_lastname@yahoo.com, there's a i_need_a_container_4_my_joy@hotmail.com or something equally confusing. I've always thought email addresses should be easy to remember. I guess I'm in the minority on that point.

And now, I am off to cut my own bangs. A noteworthy endeavor, to be sure.

Really?

I saw this last night. I didn't think it was a hoedown, I just thought she was stomping her feet in a fit. Unfortunately, NBC edited the broadcast for us Left-coasters, taking out most of the audio, so I had no idea what really happened until today. I just find this very amusing.

Signed, sealed, delivered

I just filled out my absentee ballot. It's not a pre-paid envelope. I'm too unmotivated to find my local polling station, yet they expect me to go to the post office and buy a stamp? In these days of online bill-paying and email I can't remember the last time I bought stamps. I am the anti-Luddite.

From a short story by Dave Eggers, and really the best idea I've heard in a long time:

"...and then we did some work on elections. First we made them no more than two months long, publicly funded, and forced the networks to give two hours a night to the campaigns. To really cover the issues, you know? Not the horserace aspect, not the issues of politics, but the issues of governing! There's a difference, but you wouldn't have known it way back when.

So we fixed that, and then we perfected online and phone voting. Man, participation went through the roof once we did that. Everyone thought there was just all this apathy, when the main problem was finding your damned polling place! And all the red tape—register now, vote then, come to this elementary school, but skip work to do it, on and on. Voting on a Tuesday? Jesus damned Christ! We gave people a week, let them do it so many ways, and all that—the online voting, the voting over the phone—man that was great, suddenly participation exploded, from about, what, 40 percent, to 88. We did that over Columbus Day weekend, I think. I remember I'd just had my hair cut very short. We called that style the Timberlake."