Published on Friday, 8 February 2008 .
I wasn’t able to vote in the California primaries because I didn’t get an absentee ballot. But I was able to vote in the Democrats Abroad primary - online. First I had to register to vote by the week before. There was some identifying information that I had to give - date of birth, last 4-digits of SSN, last place of residence in US, etc. So I put in all this info. Then I was emailed a link with ballot number and PIN. So on Super Tuesday, the day online voting started for the week, I went to the local internet cafe and cast my vote. It was rather unceremonious. I guess it’s the same as if I sent in my absentee ballot, but I expected something a little more fancy than a grey java box with selections for Clinton and Obama. I guess my expectations for bells and whistles online has increased over the years.
Even if elections could be done completely securely, without fear of hacking or contesting results, I don’t know if I’d like it to be completely online. There’s a lack of ceremony to it. I could have gone to a local pub to vote online with other Democrats Abroad members, but was a bit too busy to get there. I guess people could hold voting parties, but then do you really want a bunch of drunk people thinking it funny to vote for the communist party candidate? Or would that not happen?
Published on Friday, 8 February 2008 .
We’re all moved in and finally have net access again. It took about a week to get the adsl box, but it was waaaay too long considering our building is pre-wired. I felt completely out of it, didn’t know what was going on - CNN and BBC News just don’t cover enough tech and blogs for me. (But I could engorge on politics until I threw up of course.) Also, not having net access makes it incredibly hard to work on freelance projects.
As much as I love my Tivo (it’s a family pet now), the UI and programming leads something to be desired. They seem reluctant to change the top-level navigation to make it more intuitive. I understand not wanting people to have to relearn where things are, but right now a lot of the categories just don’t make any sense. I had to go online to find out how to change my cable provider. It was in a lovely category that leads you to believe you’re going to erase all your preferences..lovely. Well because we moved, it made all our programs null-and-void because they’re specific to a channel and not to first run program of same name - lame! Now I have to wait for it to download the next 2 weeks of shows before I can re-add our old list. Anyway, 4 hours, and several downloads later, it’s somewhat functional.
Luckily those were the hiccups to our move-in. The only other one was that Brendon had to go down to the border to release our belonging from customs because the moving company fraked up. It could have been a lot worse and inconvienent. Now I can focus on getting back to work.
Published on Monday, 28 January 2008 .
The Obama camp has managed to brand their flavour of change. When I first saw their CHANGE signs, I had a basic gut reaction to it that I couldn’t explain. It made me think of pretty, sophisticated, smart … and that’s weird. Why did I think this? Well because they’re using a font that’s very similar to the CHANEL font (if not the same), it is in all caps, has the same first 4 letters, and only 1 letter is different between them. If you look through Chanel ads from the past 10 years, you’ll see a similar treatment of the ”change” and it’s subhead with the Chanel name and it’s product names and taglines.
My perception of Chanel is completely opposite of the Bush brand. The Bush brand perception is simple, dumb, and abrasive. Of course the Obama camp would want to look the complete opposite of the Bush brand. So since the Obama camp is essentially using a look of another brand that already has specific connotations for the American consumer, are they benefiting from that brand’s perception? And did the designer of the sign purposefully use a similar font to invoke the Chanel brand perception?
If someone asked me this question, I’d have said that they were over thinking it. But since Karl Rove, I’m a bit skeptical of any coincidences in campaigns. And it just bugs me.
Published on Monday, 28 January 2008 .
This is for my pregnant and mommy friends. For those who don’t know her, Samantha Bee is the only woman correspondent for The A Daily Show (and she’s Canadian). Today I caught a portion of Steven and Chris (aka The Designer Guys’ new show on CBC), and saw Samantha Bee’s top 5 pregnancy list. It’s probably one of the funnier things I’ve seen since the writers’ strike started.
Published on Thursday, 24 January 2008 .
I think I’m finally back to normal after seeing Cloverfield last night. I was so seasick that I think I only saw about 20 minutes of the movie. Most of the time my eyes were closed and I just listened, peeking once in a while to see what the commotion was about. The most that I watched at one full go was the credits. If you do see it, watch until the credits end and listen carefully.
***You might consider some of this spoilers***
It makes me wonder if J.J. Abrams ever thought about how sick this movie was going to make his audience. I’m a huge Lost fan, but it makes me question if he has the chops for directing for the big screen. There were scenes in MI:III that had feeling similarly. At one point in Cloverfield bright lights flash consistently, which made me feel even worse. So either he achieved his goal in making us just as uncomfortable as the characters in the movie, or he seriously screwed up. At some point, you’d think while watching the dailies that he’d want to see it on a full screen to make sure it was watchable. He could have easily adjusted the camera character into a film student to explain why the camera was steadier than your average joe would have held it. And it would have made more sense that the character wouldn’t want to be stuck being a glorified wedding videographer for the party.
***SPOILER***
At the end the couple is under a bridge in Central Park. Now if you’ve spent a good about of time in the park, you know there are bomb shelters or maintenance rooms around those bridges. A girl who lives right next to the park would probably have seen these. So why didn’t they head to one of those?
Published on Monday, 14 January 2008 .
The packers are here building box forts. We’ve booked a place to stay. And we’re heading up to Vancouver on Wednesday morning. Four years have passed so quickly (well this past year went by kinda slowly, but that’s okay). I’ll miss my friends here (and the Mexican food), but I’m sure I’ll see them again.
So now we’re apartment and job hunting (long story), and looking forward to being closer to our friends and family. As crazy as it sounds, I’m also looking forward to actual winters, cooler summers when we can go hiking in the mountains without getting heat exhaustion and sunburn, and unpredictable weather. 70F and sunny gets a little boring after awhile.
Published on Monday, 14 January 2008 .
Last month a photo from my trip to L.A. was short-listed for Schmaps Los Angeles guide. (Schmaps does online and downloadable travel guides for 200 destinations. ) Well it made the cut, and anyone who’s interested in the Brea Tar Pits can see the lovely photo. Maybe they picked it for my phenominal photography skills or maybe no one on Flickr has taken a photo of just the tar pit. So yay me.
They also have these cute little schmapplets you can customize to show people your itinerary, where you’re going on your hen night, or whatever. Scroll through the photos and you’ll find mine.
Published on Tuesday, 18 December 2007 .
Since I used to live in Anguilla, I’m still subscribed to an email news list that gives me updates of what’s going on around the island. I seriously just wanted to cry over the weekend after I read the latest email and saw what the Dolphin Discovery in Anguilla (aka Dolphin Fantaseas) was doing to their dolphins. A local man is so concerned that he put together a page full of pictures and says:
The Dolphin Discovery facility at Meads Bay is closed down. It appears to have been abandoned by the previous management. There seems to be only a handyman present on the site during the day. He tries valiantly and without management guidance to keep up with basic maintenance. The dolphins are left to swim in their own waste. The water has become badly polluted. It is now in what must be a dangerous state for the health of the dolphins and anyone else, for that matter, venturing into the water.
Yes there are more atrocious things going on in the world than these little guys getting abused, but this is something that could easily be fixed. Unfortunately, it’s the tourists that are driving the market for a dolphin encounter in Anguilla and the local government doesn’t seem to be doing anything because it’s such a draw for tourists. I would love to swim with dolphins too, but I’d feel to guilty.
Other than posting to message boards, writing to travel magazines, newspapers, and Peta, (and creating as many keyword links to Don Mitchell’s site) there doesn’t seem much else that can be done from where I am. Unless someone knows a celebrity that would talk about it - because no one listens to anyone else these days.
Published on Wednesday, 12 December 2007 .
Brendon and I talked with his grandmother (aka Nanny) in Australia via video Skype a couple weeks ago. It was the first time he talked to her face to face in about 24 years. After seeing Brendon and talking to him for a bit she said, “We live in a magical age.” And you know - she’s right.
His aunt surprised us with the call and after getting the web cam and Skype to cooperate it was like the Jetsons video calls. As a kid I thought that would be the coolest thing ever and laughed at Jane wearing her fake face when she answered calls in the morning. Needless to say I kinda wanted one of those when they called.
What seemed improbable as a kid starts coming true the older we get. Today another thing happened. Whenever my sisters and I were being complete grumps when we were little, my mom had this little mantra she would say to us: “I don’t want to be happy. I want to be sad.” She always told us it was from her favorite cartoon from when she was little. We never saw this mysterious cartoon - I never thought we’d ever see it, and it was lost to history.
Fast forward 25 years.
Boing Boing featured a cartoon today that sounded like it just might have that line it in. And it does! The cartoon is on YouTube and is called “The Sunshine Makers“. I immediately emailed it to my mom and sisters. It’s a funny, sweet, and silly part of my childhood that suddenly makes a little more sense.
That little discovery might not seem as magical as talking to someone on the other side of the world, but to me it’s on par.
Published on Sunday, 14 October 2007 .
Things to remember about Paris, in no particular order.
- Itinerary
- Photos
- View of the Eiffel Tower from the apartment at 1am when only the sparkling lights are on
- Police concert
- American sandwiches at the Police concert - two hot dogs on a baguette topped with French fries and special sauce (dead-on name, just never have seen it before)
- Sainte Chapelle
- Getting lost in the Louvre
- Dinner at Alain Ducasse
- Seeing fashion shows, parties, and photo shoots
- Nuit Blanche - Choir and organ concert at Notre Dame
- Watching France vs New Zealand rugby match on the big screen at Place de Hotel de Ville with thousands of other people - and France won
- Chocolate chaud at Angelina’s
- Tea and macaroons at Laduree
- Tea at Mariage Freres
- Chocolate
- Fauchon cafe
- Following Amelie’s footsteps in Montmartre
- Shopping in the 8ème
- Sunday morning wake-up call
- Finding a painting of Brendon
- Wandering the city
- Schedule - wake at 9, breakfast, explore, lunch, explore, tea, explore, go home, have dinner, sleep
