When I was about 12 or 13 I helped my parents with a "get out the vote" phone thing. I was given a list of "known friendlies" and a script, and I dialed through them. I basically smiled and nodded when confronted with anything I wasn't familiar with. I'm not at all surprised the minimum wage or volunteer dialers aren't much better trained.
As an aside, living in California I may as well be living in in Canada. No one cares what we think. I'd love to get some dumb push poll calls just to suggest we actually exist on the political radar.
I don't know what the right answer is here.
As someone who has both eye and anxiety problems, I am very likely to be pinned by these types of programs.
Not using air travel really isn't an option, assuming I want to travel. The rail system is not a reasonable option for any kind of long-range travel, at least on the West Coast (a conversation that has occurred here before, so I won't recap it). And with gas prices what they are, even if I didn't feel way too old for road trips, travel by auto is expensive and uncomfortable.
The net result is a choice between restriction on freedom to travel and extreme and invasive scrutiny upon travel. It's not a good choice to have to make.
As an aside, I traveled to Canada (from the US) this month, and I had no trouble with TSA or customs. I had a serious issue with an over-zealous ticket agent who wanted to make my life miserable because I use both a maiden and married name. So go figure. The paranoia and vigilante behavior must be contagious.
My wrapping this year ended up some kind of shiny monstrosity. I bought some beautiful flocked paper on clearance last year that turned out to be impossible to work with - too thick, doesn't crease well. When I got frustrated with that, I went to the other extreme and started using foil tissue, which is forgiving but the sheets are much too small.
I am just going to assume that everyone will be distracted by the shinyness and the pretty things inside. Next year, furoshiki.
I'm really enjoying this thread and everyone's accounts. There is about the personal lens on history that touches me deeply. My daughter is 7, and really we try not to watch the more disturbing bits of the news while she's watching. I now wonder if she'll feel she missed something. I don't even think they do current events in grade school any more. Though, the news all seems bad, so I'm not sure she's missing anything.
Interesting question.
I was born in 1977. The first movie I ever saw was Star Wars, from a car-seat in a drive-in theater. I am convinced this has colored my world view since.
My earliest personal memory is sitting at the counter while my mom canned fruit, eating pears.
I think I remember when John Lennon died (age 3). My mom was crying and the radio was on. Though, I seem to have the memory in the wrong kitchen, so it's entirely possible I'm mistaken.
I remember the Challenger explosion (age 9) but not the context where I learned of it. I would have been in 4th grade - still at my first school, and I don't have any specific memory of watching it there.
I do vividly remember Chernobyl - the first truly notable news story I recall. It fueled my neurotic fears about radiation, nuclear winter, and post-apocalyptic scenarios - things I dove into both encyclopedias and science fiction to satisfy my morbid curiosity of.
I was in New Jersey in the hot, humid August summer when the first Gulf War started (age 14). I was waiting for funeral preparations for my grandfather when I saw it on the tiny television in my Grandmother's kitchen. War was a foreign thing I associated with my Grandparents' generation, and I was hurt and confused about it.
Still am, really.
As Jim's posts always are, this is fascinating. I have facial numbness of unknown origin - at least now I have some clue what nerves are playing with me, and I can curse and cajole them into playing nice. Cranial Nerve V, I am *talking to you* here.
I did in fact talk to a Real Live Neurologist about this - she did the battery mentioned in the linked page, and told me to come back if I have any new symptoms. Of any kind. I don't know if that includes talking to my nerves, though.
I personally have a (probably neurotic) dread fear of something happening to me and none of my loved ones finding out about it. This is actually a nice little bit of pacification for my anxious mind. I promptly filled out a form, printed a sticker, put the whole thing on my fridge in nice plain sight.
I also had never considered the "ICE" contact on the phone - going to do that, as well.
As always, thanks for the excellent info.
Thanks Jim - while my family and I are pretty hand-washing savvy, I didn't know about the bleach concentration thing. What about those "sanitizing wipes" for surfaces and whatnot? Any idea if those are at an effective strength?
As far as kids as disease vectors - my daughter hasn't brought home one cold this year or last, because the school is focusing heavily on hand washing, mouth covering, and using hand sanitizer in between. There hasn't been one 10-kids-out-of-class-with-cold incident. A far break from when I was a kid, for sure.
I wish I could say the same for work, where people cough, sneeze, and don't wash their hands to their heart's content.
Ick.
As many here know, I'm certain, there's an idea in gaming known as min-maxing (or munchkin, depending on where you were taught). The basis is profoundly simple - use or bend whatever parts of the rules you can find to minimize the downside and maximize the upside of the stats and abilities your character has.
Now, the gamer that enjoys role-playing is likely irritated by the min-maxer. They feeling that the min-maxer is missing the point of the game, and very possibly ruining other people's fun.
But the min-maxer, in the end, will probably win.
That's what all of politics looks like to me, right now. The Republicans will use every dirty trick in the book, because it will make them win. The Democrats are still role-playing a free society, not acknowledging that it is not in fact a cooperative game.
On "soccer mom arm" - my high school boyfriend delivered pizzas. He would do this to me occasionally, commenting after, "I forgot you weren't a pizza."
School buses - Whenever possible, I get my daughter to ride in one of the private cars going along on field trips. It scares me to death that they have no seat belts, or when they do, they are basic lap belts.
Taxis - Rarely take 'em, but the other day piled into one with my boyfriend. Taxi whipped a u-turn before I'd even had a chance to reach for my belt. I ended up on the other side of the car, crushing the poster my boyfriend was holding. Not deadly, but scary.
Trams/streetcars - if you've ever been on a streetcar that stopped abruptly to avoid a car, you'll wish they had seatbelts, too. Flying halfway down the length of a Muni car was not my idea of fun.
Finally, crashes. My ex should never be allowed to drive, having crashed my car (lightly) about 4 times and totaling two of his own since, none of which I or my daughter was present for. I went to retrieve belongings from one, where our Saturn Wagon has been rear-ended by a semi. The entire back had crumpled, right up to where my daughter's car seat was installed. The car seat was unharmed, my ex walked away with some PT for misc. soft tissue injuries - had my daughter been there unbuckled or had he been unrestrained, he would have been, as the kids say, road pizza.
Seatbelts good. Happy for all that have lived to tell the tale, and sad for those who can't pass on the warning they surely would.
Uh, read that to be "conservatives have over progressives" in #57. Pre-coffee ire.
I was so distressed this morning - I was listening to the local alt-rock station that is my alarm clock, and the first thing I heard was the jocks laughing about how pointless voting is.
This is in San Francisco. This is a station listened to by a good portion of the city's youth. If there's something that progressives have against us, it's that the right wing thinks voting is the most important thing in the world, next to godliness and cleanliness, and major radio in liberal cities is making a joke of it. Conspiracy would point out that they're corporate owned - but my mind says, there are a lot of people out there who don't understand the process.
Anyway, I voted. Absentee, on paper.
Rooster sauce! Now it has a name. Everyone I ever talk to just calls it "rooster sauce" and everyone knows what they're talking about... I expect I'll continue, as I'm not sure I can figure how to pronounce "Sriracha" without offending someone.
I'm a daily public transit commuter - if someone started this on BART, I'd consider driving my car again. I'm already dismayed at the signature-collectors and canvassers who have realized that a captive audience is likely to give them what they want just to make them go away...
To me, buses and trains are a sort of "quiet space", like libraries. A certain aural privacy should be respected.
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|---|---|
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| 2007 | 8 |
| 2006 | 4 |
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