It's like a Caucus-fest in here.

So I went out and caucused today.

That seems like it should have been easy to do, right? Just march up to your precinct place and take part, right? Wrong. What if you don't know where to go?

For the Democratic Caucuses, they just say to go to the Caucus Finder and it'll tell you. Sure, that'll work, if and only if you are registered to vote at your current address. You can register to vote if at the caucus though, and there isn't a way to find out where to go unless you already know your precinct. How many people who decide to caucus last minute do you think actually know what precinct they're in?

I didn't.

You can find maps on the King County website, but they're not super easy to find and they're stupid to read. Why can't you just put in your address and have them goddam tell you where to go? (it's worth pointing out that the king county GOP website points to the KC Metro polling place lookup to find your precinct, which also only works if you're already registered to vote at your current address

While poking around the internet to figure this information out (I last voted in 2004 and hadn't updated my registration to my current address, so had no idea where I was going and Mike's last registered address was when we lived across the street) I did find a couple cool things that someone really concerned about their privacy might freak out about.

• Sound Politics Washington State Voter Database — You can input a name or address and it'll give you the name, address, birthdate, date the person registered, and the date the person last voted. You can also see who owns the property and the sales history of that property. If you don't put in a full address (i.e. you search by name), it'll leave off the last digit of the street address, but its not like that's private, when you can also go to the:

• Do Caucus website— If you search by name, it'll give you a list of all the people with similar names, the number of their street address (but not the street itself), age, and sex. From there, you can click through to the precinct and caucus information you need. You can also search by address to get a list of people whose Street number and zip code are the same as your own and where they would go.

Neat, huh?

Anyway, so what I did is a lookup by street in the voter database and did a name search for the other people in the apartments in either side of us and went to that precinct. Shoulda been easier.

After poking around a bit more, because I was grossly unsatisfied with the user experience, I did manage to find a little google mashup on the 41st district democats website, which is cool, because it gives you the outline for your precinct and also the general caucus area.

Neat right?

Why did that take so long to find and why isn't a larger organization doing something like that on a big scale to make it easy for those who want to take part in the political process?

At any rate, I did make it to the caucus, and it was interesting, but disorganized. The woman in charge of our precinct (Precinct Officer?) apparently hadn't taken the time beforehand to read the instructions and kept doing things out of order. For example, she wanted to read to us how we were to choose the delegates and get into detail about the alternates and votes and blah blah blah before we'd even had a chance to make changes to our selection and make a final tally.

I mean, come on.

Anyway, we did our thing, got our delegates (looks like Mike's going to the legislative caucus in April!), and did some of that resolution making.

It's absolutely telling that the only resolution anyone in our precinct wanted to put in was from the one guy who wanted to terminate the caucus process and go to apportioning delegates via a primary election instead.

There's a pretty good article about the history of the primary vs. caucus systtem in Washington State in The Seattle Times, but the gist is this: Primary ballots go out for the Democratic and Republican candidates. The parties also both caucus. The Democrats don't count the primary election for anything, and apportion delegates solely by the caucuses. The Republicans will do 19 delegates from the primary results and 18 from the caucuses — this time.

It's worth noting that the primary elections in Washington state only came about because the republicans didn't like the outcome of their 1988 caucuses where Pat Robertson dominated. Since then, they've allocated all (1992), 1/2 (1996), 1/3 (2000), or 1/2 (this year)of their delegates according to the primary.

Washington state taxpayers will pay $10 million this year to decide on just 1/2 of the delegates for a single political party.

Awesome, right?

Washington did not have a primary election at all in 2004.

2007 in Review

There are only two more days (well, less really) left in the year and it seems as good a time as any to stop and look back and what happened in the last number of days.

I think one of the reasons we do things like this is because otherwise the days and weeks and months and years just blur together. Life doesn't change as quickly on a month to month basis as it did when I was a kid and more and more I find myself answering the question "So what's new?" with a stock "Oh, you know, same old, same old."

But is everything still the same as it was a year ago? Same job, same family, same apartment, same two cats. Check, check, and check. But surely things haven't always been exactly this way?


January
I rang in the New Year at a bar down the street with Wil and Lucas and Russ and Morgann and some other people. Mike was out on the East Coast for another of his sister's weddings, and shortly after midnight, I came home, turned in, and went to work bright and early the next morning.

Typical.

I got a new computer in January, which was (is!) pretty awesome.

 


February
February is when we went down to visit Mike's Dad and Terri in San Diego. We ate a bunch of stuff — I had fondue for the first time, which was interesting.

We also went on this Russian sub and some ships and things. A very nautical experience, to be sure. And to give equal time to the air, we visited the air and space museum they have down there.

 



March
This past March was Lucas's 21st birthday, and I got punched in the nose by a drunken flyweight boxer.

 



April
Rich and Juli got married this month and I got stung in the neck by a wasp, which was as totally un-awesome as it sounds. Then, Mike and I took a weekend off and drove down to TIllamook Oregon, which is about as exciting and cheese oriented as you might guess. They also have a pretty great air museum there, which we enjoyed very muchly.

 



May
Went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. Also, I pretended to crush the gray cat's head.


 


June
June was just a very very busy work month. I have absolutely no evidence that I did anything fun, social, or exciting at all.

 



July
I took a small work-related trip to Sacramento, which was fun, at the beginning of the month and went to see Rush at the White River Amphitheatre at the end of the month. And also Daft Punk. Oh, also, got iPhone. And also, Mike got hit by a car. He was okay, though.

 



August
Mike survives through his 31st birthday. Wil throws a party at this Brazillian restaurant that everybody gets amazingly drunk at. I do not believe I have been back there since. I finally got to hang out with Lloyd, since he came to town for a conference. We also had a beach party. And went to Boeing for family day. And had more nacho nights. And drove around in Smart cars.

 



September
This was the the year we finally made it to Bumbershoot. It was fun. That is all. Also the month Jessie and I started baking a lot. It's fallen off due to the holidays, but we can get back into it post-new year's methinks. I ate duck eggs for the first time (delectable!) and Wil threw a fabulous dinner party at Elemental. I also got to go on a business trip to Cupertino, which was fun.

 



October
We went home to Hawaii for my birthday and my high school reunion, which we just as awkward as one would expect. Why we do these things to ourselves, I don't know. However! I did get to meet and hang out with my little niece, Kaela,and I made a really awesome pumpkin cheesecake this month. I also managed to go to three different Halloween parties in three different costumes.


 


November
November was kind of a quiet month. I know we went out to see a number of friends a number of times, and of course Black Friday was in there, but that's about it.

 



December
December always feels so busy, like you're trying to cram in all the stuff you wish you could have done earlier in the year. We went to the Child's Play dinner again this year, Jessie had a Meme Theme Party at her place, and of course there was Christmas and all the other stuff that goes along with that.

So I guess there was some stuff this year but nothing in the major life changing event category. Next year I want to take more small weekend jaunts, and do all the good resolution thingies. But we'll see how that goes. I feel like 2006 was much more exciting for me than 2007. Maybe 2008 will bounce back to more fun-ness.

Does that bemuse you?

Have you ever been to a dinner party or chatted with someone and they tried to toss in word slightly more upscale than their usual linguistic range? Most of the time, you kind of get what they mean, so out of politeness, you nod and move on — that's what context is for after all.

But it seems now that people have been getting away with specific horrible misuses of words more commonly now, and it just has to stop.

First off — bemused.

It does not mean amused, which is the misuse I've seen too many times to count. People, it is more akin to confused.

from answers.com :

be·muse (bĭ-myūz')
tr.v., -mused, -mus·ing, -mus·es.
1. To cause to be bewildered; confuse. See synonyms at daze.
2. To cause to be engrossed in thought.

I don't see anything amusing in there at all.

Secondly — nonplussed.

I does not mean unimpressed, or was kind of 'whatever' about it. Shockingly, it means something closer to confused. Again.

from answers.com:

non·plus (nŏn-plŭs')
tr.v., -plussed also -plused, -plus·sing -plus·ing, -plus·ses -plus·es.
To put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; bewilder.
n.
A state of perplexity, confusion, or bewilderment.

So, if you ever find yourself bewildered or confused about the meanings of these two words, just roll with it. That is, after all, their meaning.

. . .

Lest you think I'm on a language high horse, at least I'm not arguing about how to pronounce "pwn".

Good idea/Bad Idea

Bad Idea: Getting all your ideas about love from the movies.

Worse idea: Getting all your ideas about love from David Lynch movies.

. . .

"You know what a love letter is? It's a bullet from a fucking gun." — Frank Booth, Blue Velvet, 1986

Grocery Store God

I like that the uniform for clerks at the QFC is short-sleeved button down shirts with black ties.

When I see them on their breaks or going home, they look like fallen Mormons, smoking up a storm while furrowing their pierced eyebrow in angst, or scowling on their way to the car, six-pack in hand, after a hard day of stocking celery.

It's like Jehovah has just been asking too much and all they want is to lead a simple life of clerking and drinking and fucking, but still feel all this guilt about leaving the temple.

Or, you know, not.

Dear EyeCare Providers of Seattle (and other small businesses)

I know the cool thing is to have a web presence. In fact, it's not just cool, it's practically de riguer in Today's World^TM.

But I'll go you one further. It is absolutely imperative, expecially as Vision Professional, for your website not to feel like it's stabbing me in the eye when I visit it.



Like seriously, dude. Also, make sure you are including relevant information I am looking for. For example, your "Our Services" tab-thing should include information about your services. Not like this:



Like, "Your staff speaks English? Oh. Thanks, Help Cat!"

And, really, I don't have anything to say about this:



Look.

I'm not the be-all-end-all arbiter of what's awesome and stuff, but can you people not spend more than 5 minutes and $50 on your website?

It would be great to be able to go to an optometrist and not feel like they would accidentally blind me or wound my eye because they're high.

Thanks! :)

love,
mary

p.s. what about the people that haven't even bothered to make websites? what about them?

Travel tip for later

SeaTac does indeed have a place to get a manicure on the way to your flight now. Butter London has opened up shop on the Charlie Concourse, so you can pick up a $20/20 minute manicure on your way to your gate — if you get there early and they haven't just started a pedicure that will take 40 minutes, that is. (Apparently they've had one on Concourse B for a while now, but I don't think I've ever flown out of the B gates.)

I used to top by the Butter kiosk at the Southcenter mall on Friday afternoons after work when it was $15/15 minutes and I was able to get double-punches on my card for being a mall employee. Whoo.

You know, sometimes, it is the little things.

I do wish there was a quick/cheap mani place close by here so I could enjoy pretty hands for the weekend at the least, but that's just me being spoiled.