Pursuit of Nothingness

I've had so much fun being a delegate so far, and have found that I love to talk to people about the campaign. A hard task because politics cannot be discussed with just anyone. There are those who get so emotionally invested in such things that they become unreasonable, and make judgements about others who do not share their views. Well, this can even happy without the emotional component. I've done this.
One of the girls in the clinic is a Republican. I used to think that Republicans were people who didn't appreciate advancement; types who felt that the old ways are the best ones, most likely were very religious, and that all this 'new fangled' stuff was for the donkeys. But she's very broad-minded, open to new ideas, has a tattoo, and likes Science Fiction as well as video games. Darn it! But she does have a strong faith perspective.
I'm really happy that I'm wrong, because I detest classification but recognize it as a natural tendency of us humans, so roll with it when the slope gets too slopey. But it really makes me ask what the difference in all this is. I dislike the leanings of politicos lately of wanting everyone to cork themselves into a bottle of one party or the other, such as being required to vote party lines. This is because I've favored candidates from both parties before, though lately that has declined enough that I can seat myself in the Democrat section. Yet now I ask, what does a Republican make? Compare the main national parties:
Republican Democrat

You'll note that I had to use Wikipedia. Fascinating, really. But the Republican party website lists out their ideology quite well, as well as their worship of Ronald Reagan, whereas the Democratic party website only has the last approved platform and a host of links that do not specify Democratic ideology, just lots of contribution and volunteering links. Hmm.
Either way, it's a good thing to read up on and be familiar with terms that are tossed around like lettuce pieces in the salad of today's journalism. One wonders if the pundits have become the pun.
Obviously, I'm having a great time with this and am looking forward to the Congressional District caucus. But I know I don't want to run for the Elections Committee for Washington State at that caucus, since they are responsible for so much. I don't have the background for it. Hopefully, I can play a part electing others who might be willing to suggest me as an At Large Delegate for National. Oooh! Look how easy it is to become a politician!!
Oh, sadness. Laundry calls. I think I'll stay hidden here in the computer room, scrapbooking my little heart out until it's too late for folding.
But two late little notes: I'm successful so far in the poem a day thingy, though I've started writing more than one per day. Curses! It's a good kind o bad, really. And I am now armed with my 360 Achievements for Legos Star Wars. Maybe instead of scrapbooking, I'll go rip the arms off 25 stormtroopers to get my Let The Wookiee Win. Eeee heee hee.

Two Minutes Till

Okay, I have two minutes to post here before the maudlin hour. I can do it!
We had a great weekend of fun, lots of scrapbooking and I got the craft room organized a little better. Mom and I went shopping today and had a nice time, without feeling too crazed. I don't want to go back to work tomorrow because DG is in a mood and has invited his sister to join the clinic even though I asked him strongly not to. It's going to be fun trying to juggle the responsibility of training her as well as dealing with any nepotism.
Keefe and I had a nice morning, though it's never enough time. He's going to catch up on Battlestar G and finally see The Lost Boys. Weird that he hasn't seen it before. Sadness that Torchwood season has ended with such overblown and yet predictable plotting, but great happiness that Doctor Who is on Sci Fi!
And I'm 25% done with Legos Star Wars! Whoohoo!

Yay!

Okay, reading the titles of this blog may lead one to think that I'm bipolar lately. But I recovered from Monday with a lovely evening of tasty dinner and Doctor Who with Keefe. Then, Tuesday was decent, I got a lot done in the clinic, and now Wednesday has started off with a wonderful surprise.

The Poem A Day guy featured one of my poems! I'm insanely jazzed; I feel like I got published. Here's the link, though you'll have to go to Day 7 Highlights and page down a bit to see me:

So cool

Just had to share. I sent an email to the fabulous writing square ladies because of this and also because I got my most recent project done. It's a short story that might turn into a larger one, and I'm also ridiculously happy about being done. I think it's because I've spent so long on prior projects that being done has always been a big deal. Hopefully, I'll be so much more productive in the future that this will stop being the case.

Yeah

Does somebody have a case of the Mondays?

Crankiness has a new poster child. Me. I get in to work this morning, late, with the fill-in doctor waiting in the parking lot. The cleaning crew didn't make it, so I'm rushing around trying to clean the place while he's chittering at me.
Why's it so cold in here? Oh, that would be because DG turned off the heat over the weekend. Lovely. Frickin' icebox. So I turn that on and begin to wonder what I did wrong. Why's there hate on me? Just in time for the wave of patients to crash in the door and cry about DG being gone today. More snarky comments about vacation. Actually, no - there's a family member in the hospital. I don't even feel bad for making them feel bad. Another bad.
Then the therapists poke their heads out of the massage rooms, hair plastered to their heads from the sauna-like conditions. I wrestle with the heater, but it insists that it's still only 64 degrees. I lose. Oh, well. We'll call is hot massage and charge extra for it. Worked for yoga.
Lunch begins with everyone leaving, even Mr. Chitters. But he returns, oh so quickly, to request that I turn off the lights in the treatment rooms so he can nap. Fine. The phone rings off the hook while I try to eat lunch and then succeed in dumping my Izzi soda ALL OVER myself and the floor. Then comes the people while I'm mopping it up and trying hard not to smash the candy dish for real; I just do it in my head, over and over and over.
It's only half past two.

Suddenly Maudlin

I'm still doing the poem a day, which is a lot of fun. I think I'm learning so much just by reading what everyone has posted. Not that I'm applying it or improving. Poetry isn't my thing. Maybe that's why I'm doing this - to try and see if I can improve.

At any rate, most of mine have been fun. My topics have ranged from banana chips to Charlie Brown, to Spring snow. And then there's tonights:

Thursday

Faded junipers
Outlined against the sky, a dull blue
With nonchalant smears of cloud
Painted on by a hand
That now turns away
Leaving droplets of disinterest
To pool and harden

A front lawn crisping
Waiting for sprinklers on Saturday
With running, wet feet and screams
Fading by Sunday
And forgotten by Wednesday
Just an aspiration today
Making it through

It's so quiet here it hurts my ears

Eek. I should have known not to post anything past midnight. It's my maudlin hour.

Democratic Caucus 4/5/08

Saturday was the Legislative District Caucus, and what a whirlwind. I was hopping around in the cold as a Fred Meyer employee unlocked the doors at 7 a.m. so I could run in and make copies of my campaign flyer. I drove to Lake Stevens High School with doughnuts and butterflies in the stomach to a few cars in the lot. Luckily, I was successful in getting a good number of volunteers to arrive early, so we all were huddled outside in the parking lot, waiting for the doors to open at 8:30 a.m. Once open, the first few hours were a frenzied blur of setting up tables, signing in delegates and alternates, and then campaigning in the packed gymnasium.


I wasn't kidding about that; running as a delegate was highly competitive. Involving speeches, position statements, flyers, and posterboard that left my hands looking like auditionees for the Blue Man Group. There were a good 150 of us running around in between announcements, Q&A sessions, and flute-playing (by the talented Jackie who was helping to MC the stalling sessions) as we waited for the credentialing process.


Each delegate needed to be verified for identity, voter status, and cross-referenced on the list of electees from the Precinct Level Caucuses. Those were the ones that everyone did back in February, electing delegates to go to the LD and County level. Once the verification was completed, we were able to proceed to the question of absentees - and oh, joy. Then verify any alternates that were still around by the same, lengthy process. This seemed to be the main investiture of the day, since we finally got all that done around 2 p.m. (it started in earnest at 10 a.m.).


Things moved pretty swiftly for a while after that, since there were no objections to keeping our LD platform and we heard from local Democrats who were to be running this fall for election. And then came the nightmare prospect of speeches from all those running for the next caucus, the Congressional District Caucus on May 17th.


The CD Caucus purpose is to elect the national delegates for the Democratic Convention in August that we keep hearing about in the news. Those elected here (51 Delegates + 9 Alternates) are "pledged" delegates who must represent the result of the caucuses and will be known as the Elections Committee.

They will be responsible for electing the "At-Large Delegates" (17 Delegates + 4 Alternates), also pledged, who are people like me that are not elected officials of the party, 10 "Pledged Party Leaders" who are elected or posted democrats within the party that also must vote according to the caucus process results, and 2 "Add-Ons" that are unpledged (don't have to vote according to the results of our caucus) from the State Convention in June to go to the National Convention.

Add those to the 17 "Super Delegates," another term heard a lot these days, to equal the full complement of delegates from our state which is 97. About Super Delegates: all are unpledged. They are not required to vote according to the caucus results. So even if Washington State caucus results are 75% for Obama, these Super Delegates could all vote for Clinton if they chose. It's based upon their individual preferences, not our state's results. Super Delegates are elected democrats of the U.S. House and Senate (8), WA Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire (1), members of the Democratic National Committee who live in WA State (7), and The Hon. Tom Foley, as our "Distinguished Party Leader", former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives (1). Clear as mud? :)

The Elections Committee, formed at the Congressional District Caucus, is the goal of everyone running to be a delegate to the CD Caucus in May. From there, it's National Convention time in Denver, which is where the final determination happens, if things proceed as they have been without a decision, for the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Heady stuff.

I'm in CD 1, which is a little dragonet on the map of WA State of four counties: Snohomish, Kitsap, Island, and a sliver of King. Here's the map if you want to see it or find your own in WA. There were so many people running for this CD that we had to be called up in groups to make our 30 second speeches. Sadly, I was last since I was running around as a volunteer and helping where necessary. Mine had to be truncated, the legs of my reason for running and what I can bring were swept off in an effort to conserve time. This was due to the hour - it was already 4 p.m., which was a good hour and half past when we were supposed to be done.

Once the ballots were cast, a few people began to fade away. We had been there all day and a lot of people were thirsty and hungry since there was no break for lunch and we had cleaned out all the vending machines. We were chuckling to think about the poor kids coming in to the high school on Monday and cursing our names since all the soda, water, juice, and snackies were already purchased by the thirsting and hungry Dem masses.

We heard the word for the first round, which I didn't get but a fabulous guy named Reggie did. He and I had been running into each other and feeding off one another's enthusiasm all day, so I was really excited he got it. I campaigned for an alternate position and waited another hour to hear that I GOT IT! I did a little squeak of a 'Yay!' when they read my name. It's such a cool accomplishment, to get something you're trying for, and that moment when you have it is like cool water on the parched lips of anticipation.

Next up are the 44th LD meeting this Thursday and helping with the County Convention to happen this Sunday at Comcast Arena. Suddenly I'm an active, dues-paying member of the Democratic Party because of one charismatic guy running for president who believes in being a part of the process - Barack Obama.

Two-Thumbed Time Bandit

What is it about seeing beloved film characters depicted as squat and square little stump-legged waddlers that is so damn cool?

Legos has created quite the empire of games, with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, due out this summer. When I first heard about the Star Wars game, I thought "aw - that'll be great for the kiddies."

A year later, I'm playing Legos Star Wars The Complete Saga. Egad! I've succumbed to the Lucas ploy of buying the same thing twice! I have The Original Trilogy, loved it, and still went out and bought The Complete Saga, which has The Original Trilogy and prequel trilogy both. What a maroon!

It's a tough game for me because I'm an OCD gamer. So going through it was hard because I was so frustrated by not being able to get all the Lego Canisters, Studs (money), and other goodies like Power Bricks.

Guess I should explain how it works: First, you go through the game guided by the Story. You collect your canisters, studs, and bricks in between fun little snippets of the movie reenacted with Legos CGI and (very loosely) based on the plot. Then, after playing the entire game, you can go back into Freeplay mode for what you've missed. Or, you can spend your Lego studs on characters to get to areas unavailable in Story mode before then, but it feels like a cop out. Well, it's in Freeplay mode where you can get some of the canisters, and until then you can't have all of them which means you can't get all the Power Bricks. This drives me to clutching my controller a bit too fiercely and twitching. But I'm working on that.

So I have this game and the Original Trilogy to keep me occupied on the Legos front until this summer, when Indiana Jones is due. RockBand, GH3, GTA3 (soon! Ever so soon!), and, I admit, Bejewelled 2, help to round everything out.

But I tripped over this poor film quality, but really fun smash-up of Indiana Jones Legos on YouTube. Damn them. By having the relevant list of videos in the right column, I have seen the hoardes of Legos vids on there. Now I know that all these little videos are out there for me to burn brain cells watching. Maybe you save brain cells when you're charmed and smiling at a program - I mean, you're engaged in it, right? Or you just don't miss them as much with the endorphin's coarsing through the blood and your giggles echoing in the room.

Either way, my gaming has regained its prominent position as a time sucker. If slot machines are the one-armed bandit, my XBox 360 has become my two-thumbed time bandit. And don't even get me started on the Wii.

One Day - But Who's Counting?

I actually finished that evil little tome and am now able to write with abandon. It was one day off my mark, but I finished it on the oh, so appropriate date of APRIL FOOL'S DAY.

Yeah. That about encapsulates the entire exercise for me. But Huzzah! And only silence answers...

April is the month of poetry. Nationally recognized. I just bet. Spring, flowers, burgeoning - all about the whimsical promise of Spring. So this guy on Writers Digest has coordinated his blog for A Poem A Day in April. Fun stuff.

I posted just now a quick little number. I don't know if I'll follow it through, but it's jolly for the time being. The subject is a prank, and this one is from April (yes, yes - an evening of apropros), an LMP in the clinic who actually pulled this one off on her boyfriend last year:

Let it fly
Smiles swirling around us
But not yours
Your mouth a letter of surprise
Confetti in the air
In your car
From the heater
And from me

Oooh! It's so good to have that ridiculous constraint, that albatross of a novel off my back. A chittering monkey that kept pulling my hair, reminding me of commitments made and disregarded.

Tonight, I recognize myself - I am a Corn Flake. Making cheap allusions, breathy references to paths untaken and a punchline to smooth the rough edges. But I flutter off to the next thing once I think I've made a good go of it. The novel took so long because I tried to make myself be what I'm not - focused and committed to writing. Writing is just a part of me, it's not my life's work. I'm a hack and I kind of enjoy it!

Right now, the only thing I'm really committed to is making the 44th Legislative District caucus a success and getting enough people to sign up as volunteers. Oh, and bringing the sugar so everyone's nicely hyped up enough for some manual labor. Hmm. I seem to be committed to being bossy - but bossy with tasty vittles!