Ode to the Hot Chick

Tomorrow's the hot chick's last day. It's sad to see her go really. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with watching her go anywhere really (wink wink), but knowing that she won't be back totally sucks. Never again will she shuffle around the office in her blanket and slippers. Never again will we watch her carefully fish the mussel out of her nabeyaki udon. Never again will I wonder, sometimes outloud, "why the hell don't you just order it without the mussel!"

I guess it's not such a big surprise that she's leaving. She hasn't seemed particularly happy here in a while. Sure, she smiled, but you could tell her heart wasn't in it. It was a "that was funny, wait, I hate being here, why am I smiling" sort of look. Hopefuly she'll be happier in her new place and fit in better - rumor has it everyone there wears slippers around the office.

I think we're going to make her cubicle into something of a shrine. Maybe some nice scented candles or incense.. I wonder if we can have candles. I'll have to look into that. Maybe if we promise not to light them, or to keep a fire extinguisher handy...

Voting Ideas

Rather than just bitch about voting, how elections turn out, and how so few people actually vote, I thought I'd offer some suggestions as to how to improve not just the voting process, but the results.

It seems like many of the people who vote on the various ballot measures vote no because they don't really know what they're voting for - a "no" vote is a "safe" vote in their minds. But it's a stupid vote - if you don't know what you're voting on, you shouldn't be voting. But that's wrong, everyone has a right to vote. So I have a couple of ideas that would let people vote, but wouldn't let their uninformed voting screw things up for the rest of us:

1. For each ballot measure, have a short quiz which tests a voter's knowledge on the subject measure/proposal. How well the voter does on the quiz determines how much their vote counts - a weighting of sorts. For example, if someone only scores 50 points on their quiz (out of a possible 100), they don't really know what they are voting on, so their yes/no vote only counts for 1/2 of a vote. If someone scores 100 points, then their vote counts as a whole vote.
   
   
2. Since uninformed voters are simply voting "no" on everything, let's just add another ballot measure, labelled "Should my vote count?" - if someone votes "no," on it, then none of their other votes count.
   

Both of these should be readily implementable with electronic voting machines. Who knows, maybe one or both are already being done!

Ripped from the headlines

I've more or less come to expect Law & Order shows to somehow or other be loosely based on current events, "ripped from the headlines" as they say. I thought it was kind of cheesy, but sometimes they had a nice spin on things - the politician is found guilty of killing the intern he slept with, for example.


The gang at the SciFi channel are getting into the habit now too though. The current Battlestar Galactica seems to be mostly a ripoff if Iraq, but without a clear indication of who the bad guys are and who the good guys are.

Earlier on in the season, the humans were clearly the good guys - the Cylons had invaded their homestead and were torturing them for information on the insurgent groups. More recently, however, the humans attempted to use a biological weapon to wipe out the Cylon race.

I can't wait to see how the season ends - the only question is - do I watch it on the SciFi channel, or on CNN Headling News :)

Get out the vote

"Get out the vote"

What the hell is that supposed to mean? To me, it sounds like a "vote" is something that would be tucked away in the closet or under the sink.. I can just about picture Archie Bunker shouting "aww jeez Edith, the dog crapped on the floor again, get out the vote and clean it up."

I'd like to propose a new slogan to inspire people to vote:

Vote, Dumbass, Vote!

It's concise, simple, and yet elegant. I read that only around 40% of the people who could have voted actually did. That's a shameful number. And yet we're excited that it's so high. We're just so used to crappy turnout that anything is good?

Did you vote? If so, great. If not - why not? Do you have a good reason? If you look at the election outcome, is that how you would have voted? If not, ha, serves you right. If you had gotten off your ass and voted, you might have made a difference. But you didn't, so don't bitch about the way things turned out, you gave up that right when you didn't vote.

I voted. Some things went my way, some didn't, that's just the way it goes. But I voted nonetheless, so I have the right to bitch about how the country is being run. And rest assured, I'm going to be bitching...