Civic Duty x 3 . . . and Counting

Today is officially the third of the four elections we are scheduled to hold this year although, thanks to early voting, I got my opinion in last Saturday.

The first was the primary to choose the candidates to replace our brand-new coke-head family-values congressman who had to resign after being busted only months after taking office.

The second was the special election between the winners of the aforementioned primary. To fill the office between special election and the next general election. This November.

Today, two months later, is the primary election to choose the candidates who will run in the general election this November except for the races where the winning candidate today would be otherwise unopposed in which case this is the regular election for all intents and purposes. The primary races where there will be opposition in November are closed, meaning only registered party members may vote to choose the party candidate. Races where there will be no other opposition are open and any registered voter may vote in those. Some races, even though they will be contested in November, are officially non-partisan and, again, anyone can vote in those. In addition, some elections are for offices in special districts which do not match the boundaries of the congressional or state legislative districts (i.e., fire districts, county commission, board of education, etc.) either encompassing only part of a larger district or overlapping with another district. Only some voters are eligible to vote in those depending on residence.

And people wonder why no one can tabulate a Florida election accurately.

Actually, I was impressed with the technology when I went in to vote. I presented my driver's license as ID which the woman at the first station scanned and, since it lists my address, the computer knew exactly which races I was eligible to vote in. It then printed out a neat one-page ballot tailored specifically for me (and anyone else living in my same neighborhood). I didn't have to worry about missing a vote or, worse, marring (and maybe voiding) the ballot by voting in a contest I should not have. In previous elections, I recall ballots where all the contests were presented and different races had different warnings attached as to who could and could not vote in them. In two languages. That's a lot of wasted trees.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that early voting uses consolidated polling stations and any registered voter can use any polling place, I was the only voter in mine for the entire (admittedly short) time it took me to cast my ballot. The turnout for off-year, primary elections, despite the fact that most of the government people actually deal with, and gripe about, on a day-to-day basis is local, is pathetic.

And thus, we get the government we deserve.

Consequences and Repercussions II: Anemic Boogaloo

Failed my iron count for the platelet donation . . . again. They tested me as soon as I walked in instead of setting up the machine (which would mean throwing away all the tubing and bags and stuff if I failed) or letting me fill out all the paperwork.

Missed it be that much.

I'm not sure what the scale is, parts per million, per cent of hemoglobin, whatever, but I missed it. Came in at 11.8. 12.5 is the minimum required and I usually rate up in the 13s somewhere. I don't know why it's taking so long to recover from the whole blood donation. It's now been eight weeks.

We rescheduled for two weeks from now, and the phlebotomist gave me a list of iron-rich foods (which doesn't look any different from what I eat regularly anyway) and recommended taking an iron supplement.

I know she's a little embarrassed and feels responsible since she's the one who accidentally took the whole blood last time. That's part of the reason we set the new appointment for two weeks out: she wants to get a successful donation from me this month, before the regular nurse gets back from vacation.

No cookies this time.

How I Came to Stand Beside Connie Chung While Nixon Resigned

Short answer: She was last in line.

Forty years ago today I was wandering around D.C. with too much time on my hands having just recently resigned as director of development for the National Student Lobby due to massive burnout. It was an intense time to be in Washington.

I'd been to some of the Capitol Hill hearings and a co-worker whose parents lived around the corner from the Watergate prosecutors snagged her a couple of tickets to the trial so we got to sit in on a session. The high points, aside from seeing Maureen "Mo" Dean, came while we were standing in line waiting to get into the courtroom. We were right next to a small branching hallway that led to the judges' chambers and "Maximum" John Sirica, himself, stopped on his way in and said "Hello," to us. Then Art Buchwald wandered by and autographed our copy of the Washington Post which we had used as a sign-up sheet while we were still out in the plaza waiting for the courthouse to open up and which everyone getting into line signed in order of arrival and then honored even though the guard announced that he could not and would not enforce it.

The radio said the president intended to make an announcement this evening and the rumors started flying. He was going to resign. He was going to declare martial law. He was going to throw Haldeman and Erlichman under the bus. Tanks and APCs were seen across the bridge in Arlington. He was going to dismiss Congress. The national guard was over by Union Station.

I decided to go to Lafayette Park which was, at that time, still separated from the north lawn of the White House by Pennsylvania Avenue. It turned out not to be an original idea.

There were thousands of people there. Some were protesting, yelling, chanting and carrying homemade signs. Many more were partying and some sections of the park became enveloped in pungent clouds which the police monitored with some amusement and an attitude of "as long as they stay peaceful, we stay out of it," although that didn't prevent a certain amount of paranoia from floating around with the smoke. This is where I heard most of the more outlandish rumors. I seem to recall a few small fireworks, too.

At the south end of the park, right up against Pennsylvania Avenue, and with an unobstructed view of the White House, the TV news crews were setting up. They parked their trucks at the corners and ran cables out to their crews. Each network and major station had its own crew: cameraman, sound man, lighting tech, make-up, talking head. As the sun went down, they set up in a line along the avenue, shoulder to shoulder. That way they each got almost identical background shots of the White House without indicating there was anyone else also standing there broadcasting the exact same thing. Nowadays, there are so many news outlets I doubt they could all fit in that space but back then there were only the three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), the local channels (both network and independent) and a couple of major channels with ambitions (mostly out of New York) which. although they were network affiliates, felt the need to have their own people there in addition.

One of those people was Connie Chung.

She was still with WCBS out of New York and not yet with the network. And she was just as hot in person as on air even with all the pancake make-up on. She was the last reporter in line on the east end, right next to Dan Rather who was with CBS network and therefor directly competing for the same eyeballs. The klieg lights all in a row made the rest of the evening that much darker. I stood at the end of the line, about three feet away and watched Nixon resign on the same monitor her producer was using.

I wandered away when the resignation was over and the "analysis" began. I'd be surprised if folks in the White House couldn't hear all the cheering and yelling that went up from the park that night. The party continued on for quite a while.

Eventually I went home and, a few months later, with all the adrenaline gone from an exhausted city, moved back to Connecticut.

The MOOC and Me: Game On!

I submitted another homework assignment to the Harvard CS50 intro programming on-line class yesterday. They're becoming more fun and, seemingly at least, getting easier as we go along although that impression may be because I might actually be learning something.

This last assignment was to complete building a version of the game "Breakout." This was our introduction to graphical objects and it seemed much more intuitive and commonsensical. Maybe it's because I'm getting used to C programming but the grammar and syntax of the Stanford Portable Library just makes perfect sense to me. With one exception, I didn't have any of the screeching-halt, head-against-the-wall, days-long roadblocks I've encountered with the other assignments. (The minor exception was a simple case of a stray return command that prevented the game from restarting with the next life after losing one. Delete line. Fixed. Two days.)

So far I've received perfect scores on all my submissions. Now, we're getting into forensics (manipulating bitmaps and restoring jpegs). I'm beginning to feel the time pressure of the end of year deadline as the assignments become more technical and complex since I also have to leave enough time for an original end-of-class final project.

At least I know, whenever I get frustrated, now I can break out the old "Breakout" and waste a few minutes. It's like building your own therapy.