Occupy the Vote. Make a Difference. #occupythevote

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Washington state is expecting a 47% turnout in this election — and people bitch and moan about how nothing ever changes.

I support the #occupy movement. But I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that if every one of the #occupy protesters actually voted, there are a lot of races that wouldn’t be as close as they end up being. If every #occupy protester told their friends to vote — and not just, “you should vote,” but “no, seriously, YOU SHOULD VOTE, we’re going to the polls/filling out our ballots now,” a lot of races wouldn’t even be close.

Yes, protests are important. Yes, we need to make our voices heard. But we also need to remember that shouting in the streets isn’t the only way to make our voices heard. Fill out your ballot. Put it in the mail. Put it in a drop box. If you don’t live somewhere where you can vote by mail, then take the hour out of your day to go to the polls.

But don’t ignore your right to vote, then bitch because nothing ever changes.

And don’t whine that “my vote doesn’t make a difference,” or “it’s just one vote.” Over the past couple decades, we’ve seen too many elections, national and local, where recounts were triggered because the final tally was so close. A few more votes — those tiny, insignificant, single votes — all of a sudden aren’t so minuscule.

#occupythevote

The Frog Prince

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From Tiger Beatdown › “Elitism:” Now, It Basically Just Means “Not Having Sex With Everybody”:

We get a lot of sexist narratives about love, but none of them are more pernicious and subtle than this: The Frog Prince story. You could call it “Beauty and the Beast,” too. Or you could call it “Twilight,” or “Knocked Up,” or “Rory Williams Won’t Stop Whining;” it’s always the same story, anyway. Girl meets guy. On the surface, this guy is unappealing! Because he’s a frog! Or he’s not sexually attractive to her, or he treats her badly, or he’s immature, or he’s Rory Williams and he won’t stop whining; all of these are frog-like states, generally considered unkissable. But only a bitch would think that frogs don’t deserve our sweet, sweet kisses, so the woman doesn’t leave. Instead, she looks for the guy’s good qualities. She lowers her standards; she changes her expectations. She gives up on her silly little “ideas” about “attractiveness” or “compatible lifestyles” or “having fun with her partner.” Finally, she loses touch with her own desires to the point that she winds up making out with a fucking frog. At which point he becomes a prince. Or a loving husband, or a responsible person, or a whiny little Roman Centurion; the point is, in these stories, once you give up on wanting things from men, men magically become what you want.

Here’s the secret, though, if you are the girl in this particular story: That guy never became a prince. At all. He’s still the same guy; he still possesses all those qualities you initially found unappealing, for all sorts of valid reasons. People don’t go from frog to mammal overnight, and they particularly don’t do so because you ask less of them; you are still making out with a frog, in the long run. The only reason he looks like a prince nowadays is that you lowered your standards to the point that you literally could not tell the difference between frog and mammal. It’s not that you got what you wanted; it’s that you settled for wanting what you got. And that is the precise opposite of a happy ending.

Architectural Psychology in The Shining

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If you’re at all interested in movies, Stanley Kubrick, Kubrick’s version of Stephen King’s The Shining, set design, psychology, or any combination of the above, you really should take twenty minutes to watch both of the following videos.

The Shining: Spatial Awareness and Set Design Part One:

The Shining: Spatial Awareness and Set Design Part Two:

(via Daring Fireball)

Awkward Family Photos: The Game!

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Long-time readers will know that my family has been featured on the Awkward Family Photos website not just once, but twice, and both photos were also featured in the Awkward Family Photos book.

Well, you can’t keep a good thing down — we’re now also featured in the Awkward Family Photos game!

Based on a popular website, Awkward Family Photos will be your new favorite party game! Combines classic and never- seen-before Awkward Family Photos with probing, open ended questions for a memorable game night full of laughter and creative discussion. Simply flip over an Awkward Family Photos featuring uncomfortable moments from weddings, vacations, and holidays and read aloud the open ended questions. Your hilarious answers guarantee a night of awkward fun…. and if you know your fellow players well enough, and impress them with your answers, you’ll get the last laugh.

Here’s the sales pitch, courtesy of AFP co-founder Mike Bender’s grandparents:

Mechanical Life and Intelligent Design

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From On the Origin of Transformers:

The advocates of ID, who are arguing that their belief should be included in science classes in Texas, Tennessee and other states, say that if a living organism has a design that cannot be explained by the theory of natural selection, it is proof of an Intelligent Designer. If you consider a Camaro, for example, wouldn’t it obviously have had a Designer? Could its parts have been assembled by a hurricane (or a trillion hurricanes) blowing through a junkyard?

Certainly not. Therefore, this is proof that Autobots were not assembled on Cybertron by hurricanes or any other means envisioned by Darwin, and were Intelligently Designed. That makes the Transformers series a compelling parable for ID, and I expect several of this year’s Republican presidential candidates to recommend the movies on that basis alone.

Roger Ebert, making the case for Intelligent Design…at least within the universe of the Transformers.

Life in Ellensburg: All Graduated and Employed!

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I know it’s been a long time since I’ve done much in the way of “real” blogging. Believe me, I know — it’s been bugging me. However, the reason for the delay has been for two very interconnected reasons: I don’t like blogging about things that are happening until they’ve actually happened, and I’ve been a lot busier here than I expected to be. It’s all for good reasons, though — Ellensburg has been treating me very well, as it turns out.

So. Last time I wrote much of anything, I’d just joined Prairie at our little apartment here in Ellensburg, had technically/officially graduated from CWU, and had picked up a temporary part-time job reworking the website for the CWU Department of Law and Justice.

Not long after starting that part-time position, the secretary for CWU’s Math, Writing, and Academic Advising centers left for a new job. Prairie put in a good word for me, and since working on the LAJ website had already put me into CWU’s system, hiring me was easy, so I added a second temporary part-time position covering the secretarial position for those three departments.

Right about the time I was wrapping up my work on the LAJ website, the LAJ secretary put in notice that she’d also accepted a different position. Once again, I happened to present the right combination of availability and ease of hiring — with the added bonus of already having started getting to know the Ellensburg LAJ staff and faculty — so I did a sort of sideways slide from the website work into filling in as the temporary secretary for the LAJ department.

So, for the past couple months, I’ve been working nearly full time in two temporary positions; part-time as the LAJ secretary for half the day, and part-time as the UMC/UWC/AA secretary for the other half of the day. It wasn’t what I was expecting — Prairie and I had both figured that I’d be spending this summer relaxing, goofing off, and generally bumming around Ellensburg — but it’s also felt good to be doing something. Plus, it seemed like both of these positions were great ways to get a foot or two in the door at CWU to see where that might lead.

June was in many ways all about graduation. Early in the month, Prairie and I drove over to the CWU-Kent campus for the annual end-of-year banquet for the Westside Law and Justice students, at which I was awarded Outstanding Graduating Westside Law and Justice Student honors. Then, in mid-June, Prairie and I took a week off of work for the formal graduation ceremonies.

My parents drove down from Alaska, and we started the festivities with the formal Honors Convocation here in Ellensburg, where I was recognized for achieving Dean’s Scholar status. Then we all drove over to the Westside so I could march in the Westside graduation ceremonies with all the classmates with whom I’d actually gone to school. I got my special silver tassel for graduating Magna Cum Laude, marched across the stage, and got my moment on the Jumbotron. Back to Ellensburg for a few days with my parents, a day in Olympia to meet Prairie’s newest niece, and then back to Ellensburg and back to work.

A couple of weeks ago, as soon as the position formally opened, I put in an application for the LAJ secretarial spot that I was filling. Just over a week ago I interviewed, and early this week, I was notified that I was the chosen candidate! Right now, I’m in the midst of my two-weeks notice for my UMC/UWC/AA position as the paperwork goes through for the LAJ spot, then as of mid-July, I’ll officially be the Secretary Senior for the CWU Department of Law and Justice. Not bad at all!

(And as a congratulatory prize, I ordered myself an iPad 2. It hasn’t shipped from Apple yet, but I should have it in another week or two. Yay, new techy geeky toys!)

Meanwhile, Prairie continues to do well running the Writing Center. At this point, we’re sure we’re set to be here in Ellensburg for at least the next year. Though we toyed with the idea of moving up to renting one of the houses nearby, we’ve decided to stay in our little apartment. It’s cute, we have it arranged so that it’s working quite well for both of us, and with both of us working good solid jobs, staying here will allow us to save a ton of money over the next year. At that point, we’ll reassess, decide what we’re going to do and where (if anywhere) we’re going to go, and our next move should be into a home of our own.

So, that’s where things stand at the moment — all in all, pretty darn good.