Category Archives: Personal

The New Year (Triskaidekaphobia Edition)

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Here is last year’s New Year’s Resolution (2012) post.

This past year, 2012, has been full of changes. As noted in last year’s post (link above), my Year Card for that year was Death, indicating new beginnings, changes, etc. It was certainly fitting.

I had three goals for last year, and I failed at all but the most important one (getting Melissa and the kids moved out here); I call that a resounding victory.

7974d3c437c711e2979222000a1f9bc6_7For this coming year, I think my resolution will be a little simpler and more focused than in past years, and it is somewhat related to my birthday post I did a few months ago, about the “7 year lifetime” thing:

  1. I want to focus more on developing my artistic skills.

There are many avenues that I can take towards this end, that I can (and already have) fit into my existing life. It also feels like many things are coming together that are providing impetus for this particular goal.

Still no passport yet. I am hoping this doesn’t become a running gag.

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Tompkins County Write-In Candidates

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In the Fall 2012 elections, our district’s State Senatorial contest featured only a single unchallenged Republican candidate, Thomas O’Mara. Given Tompkins County’s progressive bent (our Mayor recently has started lobbying for legalization of marijuana), it seemed to be just downright wrong to be represented by the GOP.

Some friends and I, gathered for coffee and games, were discussing this; three days before the election. Our friend Mallory Roberts was there. I forget who suggested it, but the idea of voting him as a write-in candidate for that seat became a topic of discussion. He had business cards; on the reverse, he wrote something like “Vote me for State Seante, I am not evil.” We left them all over the coffee house and I think he left some at other locations nearby as well.

His campaign, as it were, was underway. (I have a few thoughts on this, if anyone else is interested in running as a write-in candidate, but I’ll save them till the end, at the bottom)

On election night, my friends and I were checking the local election progress. The state senatorial race was being updated, but only listed votes for registered candidates (O’Mara), “Write-ins” and total votes cast. There were actually a substantial number of write-in votes cast — I want to say about 10-15% by the end of the night. We were all very curious about how many Mallory got.

After the election, I realized that I could find this out, with a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request. It was surprisingly easy, Tompkins County actually has a really convenient form for filing these requests. I was able to send my request, and get my response, electronically.

FOIL requests can be submitted for any public records. I was told mine would be filled by the Board of Elections, and would take approximately 3 weeks; I don’t know how long other requests would take. My request was free, but other requests may cost money, particularly if they require many hours of labor.

Below the jump are the details of my request along with the complete results of the write-in candidates for Tompkins County district NY State Senator.

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Awesome Vegetarian Fauxen Soup

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With the first real snowfall yesterday, the season of winter is effectively upon us. I really enjoy eating soup when it’s cold, but this can be somewhat challenging as a vegetarian, since even “vegetable” soups are often made with either chicken or beef stocks.

Fortunately, making your own soup is actually pretty easy to do and doesn’t take very long. You can store it in your refrigerator to have soup for a few days, even.

Here’s how I make it!

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Birthday32: Life is short, break it up!

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On Saturday, I turn 32.

Serendipitously [is that even a word?], I ran across this comic on SMBC. In short, it says that, with the premise of being able to “master” something in about 7 years, and a lifespan of a happy, healthy person being about 88 years, we have 11 “lives” from age 11 until age 88. Every 7 years, we can give ourselves closure on one life and begin to embrace another. I say that this was a serendipitous moment because age 32 happens to be the beginning of the fourth lifetime (11 + (7 * 3)), out of 11 (10, statistically speaking).

This notion is quite similar to a similar webcomic I read on Abstruse Goose called 936 Blobs, where each blob represented one month in the landscape of the average life expectancy (he used 78 as average, which is probably more statistically accurate, but less optimistic).

The over-arching concept is simple:

  1. life FEELS really long
  2. …but is shorter than we think
  3. …so we should break it up into smaller bits for better perspective

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Bouncehouse Done Wrong (Know Your Market!)

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Bounce HouseI’m pissed.

I just had to explain to my three-year-old girl that she had to leave the bounce house because “that man says her time was up”, putting her in tears. My five-year-old was more compliant with the instruction.

“That man” was the operator / staffer who also, moments ago, offered to let me pony up another 3 tickets (at $1 / ticket) for another 3 minutes in the bouncehouse. (3 tickets is the gate-fee for using the bounce house)

If you don’t understand why this is a problem, it is likely that you have never taken a young child to a bounce house, which I suspect is most likely the case for the teen-aged operator. The festival, as a whole, was organized by a large group of other youth in his age-group, and for the most part, was done well. But the bouncehouse was clearly not planned by someone who had done proper market research into what their consumers (children ages 2-7, typically, and the parents who bring them) are expecting.

Let me explain: Continue reading →