My latest spectacles are about to drive me insane. I've been wearing glasses since 1985. They are pesky but generally I have been happy with them. But ever since I got the anti-glare film, I've been driven to the brink of insanity. One brush of my eyelash, a slight touch of a finger and it's blur-ville. They are hard to clean! I know I am not supposed to do it but I just end up washing the lens with dish soap. And of course there's always a bit of soap caught on the hinge and as I dry them they just smear across the lens and I have to start over again.
What an eyesore it's all become.
Gnarled Beauty
©2007. all rights reserved
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Double Bubble Ballot Trouble
I been bamboozled. I been took. I been poll-taxed and butterflied. It's not as if I were some senior citizen voting in Palm Beach County, FL, circa November 2000. I am a young-ish college educated professional, but here I am, another citizen, disenfranchised by the ballot. On Super Tuesday, I discovered that I too was among many LA County voters who had been struck by the Democratic Ballot "Double Bubble" Trouble.
As a non-partisan voter, in CA, the Democratic party allowed us non-Dems to vote in their primary. As a permanent absentee voter, I requested the Democratic ballot, filled it out and mailed it back before the end of January--long before Super Tuesday. That should have been the end of it--ballot received, vote counted. WRONG!
The geniuses who designed the DEMOCRATIC ballot for non partisans added an extra "bubble" that had to be filled in order to designate that the voter wanted to vote for the democratic Party. (Duh--like, isn't that obviously my intent since I asked for the Democratic ballot?
Further, the machines that count the ballots are programmed to reject the ballot if the little party bubble isn't filled out.
Here's the salt in the wound. The ballot requests that we VOTE for ONE of either
AMERICAN INDEPENDENT and DEMOCRATIC PARTY, BUT only the Democratic party has a bubble option.
Hunh? you say? Confused? yeah. I feel you!
The ballot designers set us up to be disenfranchised with their Mandatory, Fatal false choice. Did they note that this bubble was MANDATORY ANYWHERE on this ballot? NO!
Did they ask themselves, WHY are we making people indicated they are voting for the Democratic Party when the Ballot only has Democratic Names on it?
Should it not be self evident that when a non-partisan asks for a democratic ballot that the voter INTENDS to vote for the Democratic slate? Hmmm. I suppose they needed the "Anvil of the Obvious" to drop on their genius heads to figure that out. Instead they decide to Screw the people who are trying to help them out by giving them their votes! It's like someone inviting you to their party and insulting you! Maybe next time I will decline their invitation and stay at may own non-party. See how they like that!
I paid $95 fee to became a citizen of this country so I could vote and have my voice heard. I will be damned if my vote doesn't count. I will get my money's worth. Well maybe I have. This ballot was not worth the paper it was written on. This is a first world country. Can they not figure out how to make a simple, clear, effective ballot?
Anvil moment here: What if somebody out there, does not want folk to vote?
As a non-partisan voter, in CA, the Democratic party allowed us non-Dems to vote in their primary. As a permanent absentee voter, I requested the Democratic ballot, filled it out and mailed it back before the end of January--long before Super Tuesday. That should have been the end of it--ballot received, vote counted. WRONG!
The geniuses who designed the DEMOCRATIC ballot for non partisans added an extra "bubble" that had to be filled in order to designate that the voter wanted to vote for the democratic Party. (Duh--like, isn't that obviously my intent since I asked for the Democratic ballot?
Further, the machines that count the ballots are programmed to reject the ballot if the little party bubble isn't filled out.
Here's the salt in the wound. The ballot requests that we VOTE for ONE of either
AMERICAN INDEPENDENT and DEMOCRATIC PARTY, BUT only the Democratic party has a bubble option.
Hunh? you say? Confused? yeah. I feel you!
The ballot designers set us up to be disenfranchised with their Mandatory, Fatal false choice. Did they note that this bubble was MANDATORY ANYWHERE on this ballot? NO!
Did they ask themselves, WHY are we making people indicated they are voting for the Democratic Party when the Ballot only has Democratic Names on it?
Should it not be self evident that when a non-partisan asks for a democratic ballot that the voter INTENDS to vote for the Democratic slate? Hmmm. I suppose they needed the "Anvil of the Obvious" to drop on their genius heads to figure that out. Instead they decide to Screw the people who are trying to help them out by giving them their votes! It's like someone inviting you to their party and insulting you! Maybe next time I will decline their invitation and stay at may own non-party. See how they like that!
I paid $95 fee to became a citizen of this country so I could vote and have my voice heard. I will be damned if my vote doesn't count. I will get my money's worth. Well maybe I have. This ballot was not worth the paper it was written on. This is a first world country. Can they not figure out how to make a simple, clear, effective ballot?
Anvil moment here: What if somebody out there, does not want folk to vote?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Obama and the Superbowl
I screamed like a Banshee on Sunday. I hollered and hooted and whistled at the UCLA Women for Obama rally. I saw Oprah who said she is voting for Obama because he is BRILLIANT. Caroline Kennedy was there. Maria Shriver, as usual left her husband (Gov. Schwarzenegger) in the dust with her endorsement of My Man, Barack! Michelle Obama spoke. She was the star. I particularly loved the fact that she told the crowd that she and Obama were onlyl just 3 years out of paying off their student loans. That's MY life. And that why I am voting for him. He is not some trust fund baby with a sense of entitlement. He knows he better WORK and work for US!
And then I went home and screamed like hell to cheer on the underdog NY Giants in their bid to win the superbowl over the favoured and annointed NE Patriots. Not that I hate the Pats but really they have won three times already. There was a sense of inevitability and they just didn't win. I feel like Obama is the NY Giants trying to beat those who feel entitled because of their past victories!
Go Giants and Go Obama!
And then I went home and screamed like hell to cheer on the underdog NY Giants in their bid to win the superbowl over the favoured and annointed NE Patriots. Not that I hate the Pats but really they have won three times already. There was a sense of inevitability and they just didn't win. I feel like Obama is the NY Giants trying to beat those who feel entitled because of their past victories!
Go Giants and Go Obama!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
January 31
Today is the official end of the "new" year. It's over. No more Christmas references. No more "Happy New Year" (unless it's the Lunar New Year). It's the day that marks the beginning of the year slip sliding away back into old habits, the ones that were temporarily staved off by the new year resolutions. It's the day you give up the ghost of the last resolution. Throw in the towel. Quit the gym. And while you're at it, quit the year since time flies so fast, by the time February ends, you might as well get ready for the next year. Pessimistic? Maybe. Realistic? Yes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)