Enjablog

Happy Halloween!

I started my morning off with a nice little treat for myself:

It turns out absentee-in-person voting is just like early voting, but with more paperwork. I thought it would be like absentee voting, but with less postage. Got to use the voting machines like usual and still get a sticker!

LOTD: Implicit Association Test

Linked this a while back, but they have a new test just for the election! Plus, I retook the male/female science test and am now neutral. I definitely have my coworkers to thank for that, as well as the many competent female engineers I have befriended over the past few years.

Thanks to my aunt and uncle for their referral… Glenn the Handyman, Ian, and I were able to get a bunch of stuff fixed around the apartment a couple weekends ago.

Ian and I were out at dinner one night and we both noticed the light fixtures in the restaurant. Didn’t think much more of it… until we went shopping the next day for light fixtures and they had the exact same style on display. This one is 3 lights together, which works well over a dining room table. The one in the restaurant had individual lights over each table.

The kitchen lights used to be on a dimmer switch, which was very finicky. One day, the switch stopped working, so Ian and I replaced it with a regular 3-way switch. Only two of the lights worked after that and the switch at the far end of the kitchen didn’t work at all. Two weeks later, one of the lights went out and immediately blew out again when I replaced the bulb. Something was definitely wrong.

This was “fixed” for a few of the intermediate months by using the overhead stove light. That, in conjunction with the one remaining light, was sufficient. …Until the stove light burned out. So, I brought in the lamp from my nightstand. This was good enough to bump the whole lighting situation down many notches on my to do list. Except that my bedroom was dark. Didn’t seem like a big deal though, since I only sleep in there.

While we were at it, we also changed out the shower heads in both bathrooms — one new, and the old one replaced the crappy one in the second bathroom. And there’s one bathroom faucet left to do. Glenn suggested we replace the whole vanity while we were at it, since it was pretty old and ugly. I was surprised to find that the ones at Home Depot ranged from $70-$2200. Seemed like I could find something in my price range.

After removing the old vanity though, it turned out that the people who had remodeled the bathroom before had just painted over the wall paper in there and had only done so up to the edges of the installation. So… we’ve decided to just do it right and remove the wallpaper, paint, and install the new stuff. So, that’s the new project. But until then, the other bathroom is fully functional!

Note to self: Do not delete blog.

Thanks to Ian for saving my last 5 years of memories. And it only took him a couple hours! :)

Went over to Lenny’s place last week to have a sibling potluck for the brothers’ birthdays. I pulled out my camera at one point and Eliana just started dancing. I was told that she learned from my brother…

Anna made General Tso’s chicken from scratch. We were all thoroughly impressed with her cooking skillz. Sooo good!

And a belated happy birthday to Crit!

So… this weekend sucked.

I know this video has made the rounds and I’m like a day behind on this. But I think it’s awesome that Virginia is getting so much attention this year!

Happy birthday, Lenny!

And happy early birthday, Sonny!

I don’t know what is with my office building, but they have these large air fresheners in each bathroom. Most days, it’s some benign scent like citrus or lavendar. But then. There are days like today. Where they replace that scent with old lady smell.

I don’t know where they get it from or why anyone with a nose would want to be near it. But it’s awful. I’d rather they just left the bathroom smell alone than to mix it with this offensive stench. Ick.

Definitely the most active and engaging out of all the debates. I had concerns that even though the stuff McCain was saying wasn’t completely based on reality/fact, he was being very aggressive and people would portray him as the victor for the night. Fortunately, he fizzled out quickly and spent the last hour huffing and puffing to himself.

Obama, on the other hand, was incredibly calm. I pretend to be a nice person. I don’t make waves and I’m non-confrontational. But when McCain started talking about Obama’s “attacks” [on his health care plan], I was yelling at the TV. I was angry that Obama wasn’t pointing out the death threats and encouragement of the us/them Arab=terrorist divisiveness. And he didn’t mention the fact that McCain has been a keynote speaker for ACORN! (Plus, ACORN wasn’t committing fraud, etc.)

But in the end, two wrongs don’t make a right. He did an amazing job not taking things personally and rightly so. None of this is actually personal. Arguing accusations and pointing out that “he started it” or “what he did was worse” doesn’t help your cause.

So, wow. I was thoroughly impressed.

And great job by Bob Schieffer! He was like a good marriage counselor. Bringing up the uncomfortable topics, allowing each person their chance to respond, kept the debate moving, while reminding the candidates what the original question was to keep them on track. Granted, not necessarily questions the political junkies want to hear, but good for the general population who are seeing all these ads/clips out of context.

Memorable moments:
- McCain’s bug eyes upon hearing small businesses are not fined for failing to provide health care to their employees.
- McCain’s “I’m not Bush” line. I can see what people liked about it. I thought it was too little, too late. But I’m also not a voter he’s going to sway. So, good moment for him.
- “And we find bad teachers another line of work.” (followed by “We need to encourage programs… [where people] can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations…”)
“I’m sorry… You’re not good at this. Let’s make you a janitor instead.”

Omg! I was trying to make fun of this, but it’s genius! I want to use this philosophy at work. They let people be engineers without certifications. I’ll just start pulling people aside, “I’m sorry. You’re a huge moron. I think you’re more suited for a career as Underwear Inspector #312.”

Annoyances:
- Hatchet/scalpel analogy. Let it die already. It makes no sense! Who uses a hatchet and then a scalpel? I better call up BFF for her professional medical opinion.
- Does McCain not know the difference between autism and Downs?
- Joe the Plumber (winner of the night by a landslide, and I say this grudgingly… what with him not being named Joe, not a licensed plumber, a registered Republican, and delinquent on the taxes that he’s so very concerned about)

“Hey, the file you sent out doesn’t address any of the comments we received.”
“Oh, you’re right. I think that’s because I forgot to save.”
So… you’re going to fix that when..?

I will not do your work for you just because you’re incompetent. Seriously.

I will, however, continue to point out your inadequacies until I lose patience and am forced to kick you in the face. It won’t be my fault though. You made me do it. You should apologize now.

I went in to the Alexandria Obama office last week to help out with a postcard writing event. It was listed as a Women for Obama event, intended to reach undecided women in swing states. They were very specific about getting Virginia postcards to make it clear where we were writing from. I sent Ian out the day before (on his day off) to find some pretty postcards in Old Town for me.

I <3 postcards, so this was very exciting for me. I showed up with extra postcards and stamps to share and plenty of enthusiasm. The two rooms in the office designated for this activity were at capacity. There were people sitting on the floors and taking turns sitting in chairs.

So, after the 2 dozen or so women show up to write to undecided voters in swing states, we received our lists of addresses. All of which were in the swing state of Virginia. Most of whom live in Alexandria. Specifically, Old Town.

I wouldn’t complain about getting postcards from someone though, even if they were local. So, if nothing else, I hope the recipients at least appreciated the prettiness of the postcards we sent. :)

Today is National Depression Screening Day. So if you’ve been thinking about getting screened or know someone who should, consider doing it today.

Wow, I finally got around to using Bluehost’s one-click upgrade feature for Wordpress. I don’t know what took me so long. I was probably about 3 versions behind.

This new stuff is so nice! I can upgrade all my plugins with one click now, there are so many more options in the settings, and everything is just a little prettier.

So very pleased so far. Need to click around some more.

P.S. Let me know if anything looks funny so I can fix it. Thanks!

Come on Focus Group! What was up with last night?

“I was disappointed in their responses. I didn’t hear anything new.”
“Both candidates were just using talking points.”
“After watching this debate, I’m still not convinced either candidate has a plan.”

Uh, if they said anything new, they’d be flip-flopping and people would complain that they didn’t know what their plan was. And, yeah, they’re politicians. They’re going to steer their answers to some practiced speech they’ve used before.

No plan? No plan??

Go visit both candidates’ websites. Listen to what they’re saying. They’re not going to detail out their plan during the debate because then you’ll be bored by that. But they give generalities and you can get the specifics from their websites.

Both candidates have plans. You just have to decide which one you agree with more.

I’m disappointed with last night’s Focus Group.

But the dial group! Ohio undecided voters — Wow. Those women were maxing out their dials, like, every third time Obama spoke. The men came close a few times, but those women. There was one point where they had completely maxed out the entire length of the screen!

As far as the debate went, I really don’t like the Town Hall style. McCain made me uncomfortable with how close he was standing to people. Kinda creeped me out. I guess I just really like my personal space and need other people to have theirs too.

Also, I don’t know if I’m slow, but Ian and I figured out the whole sharpie thing with McCain. I don’t think he could read his own handwriting without glasses/squinting if he used a pen. He has to use a fat marker so he can read his notes. We did notice that he came prepared this time though. He brought a spare marker in case the old, used one wore out.

I thought Tom Brokaw did a good job. Some of the analysts (last night’s winner: Castellanos; CNN got rid of Rollins and Rosen from last week though) didn’t like him, but I thought he did a good job trying to stick to rules that no one else wanted to abide by. Both candidates made themselves sound bad because of this too. Obama for asking permission to respond, and McCain sounded childish, “Well, if he gets that, I want that too.”

And the hole in the back wall! I thought it was just for the camera to look at Tom Brokaw; Ian and I kept looking at it when the camera panned past it. Thank goodness for that flub at the end where they showed the teleprompter. It explained why the hole was so big.

From our heckling last night, after finding out that Michelle Obama was planted in the audience:

Tom: And now we have an audience question from Michelle O. of Illinois.
Michelle: Whose socks are these on the bathroom floor?
Tom: Senator McCain? Your response?
McCain: *pointing* That guy’s.
Obama: Now wait just a minute. There’s enough blame to go around here. But this isn’t a time to be asking, “Whose socks are these?” We don’t have times to be pointing fingers. We need to ask ourselves, “Who will help pick these socks up?”

VTGuy: There was a change to the weights.
Me: What weights?
VTGuy: The loads.
Me: Which loading condition?
VTGuy: Whichever one Boss Jr was working on. We updated a spreadsheet.

Me: VTGuy said you guys were working on a load condition and there was a change.
Boss Jr: Yeah, but I think it was minor. You should make a note to fold it into the next go-round.
Me: What condition is this for?
Boss Jr: The one you’re working on, but don’t worry about it now.
Me: I’m working on 3 different conditions. All defined by you.
Boss Jr: Oh, the one that VTGuy was working on.

Why won’t anyone offer me the information they intend for me to have??

These people are so useless.