Don't just go in there and start flicking levers. Don't vote the straight ticket just because you think it looks nice when all the flags are lined up. Don't vote for John Doe (Democrat) if you should have voted for John Doe (Working Families). Don't give up the opportunity to have a say in your local government just because you don't recognize any of the names that aren't in Column A Rows 1 and 2.

There will be one proposal on the ballot. In addition, the following offices are also up for election. If you don't know which districts you live in, follow the links to find out.

United States President
United States Representative in Congress (districts 26-28)
New York State Supreme Court, (district 8 - all WNY)
New York State Senate (districts 58-62)
New York State Assembly (districts 142-146, 148)
Erie County Court Judge
Erie County Family Court Judge
Erie County District Attorney
Niagara County Sheriff

The League of Women Voters puts together an informative voters' guide for every election and makes it available for free Read it to find out more information about the offices and candidates' experience, endorsements, and opinions.

You may be wondering what it means if a candidate is listed under more than one party. Suffice it to say that a vote for a candidate counts just as much on the Democrat line as it does on the Liberal or Working Families line. However if your beliefs are more aligned with a minor party, voting on their line will give them leverage with the candidate's platform. In close elections, endorsements by minor parties do make differences [in the opposite way of the Nader Effect] so most politicians are loathe to put third-party endorsements at risk. Here's kind of a long explanation


- Z

There is a proposition on the ballot today, which may be difficult to find on your voting machine. It will be at the very top, above all the candidates for office.

All candidates for government employment need to pass the Civil Service Exam. Veterans who were disabled in the line of duty are eligible to get extra points on the exam, but only if they are currently receiving disability benefits from the VA. Vote 'yes' if you approve of eliminating the second restriction; vote 'no' if you'd rather it be retained.

- Z

'Yes' on Proposition 8? Since when are the Mormons an authority on traditional marriage?

Update from my west-coast correspondent:

fuck, man.... if the entire rest of the insane country (read:midwest) hadn't gotten involved and funded the shit out of "Yes on 8", no would've passed.... don't get me started.

- Z

Cat and Girl sums it up for me:



- Z

From the 'I wish I'd thought of it first' file, the world's first $200 HSDPA ocarina

I lost this weekend to an emergency instaproject. It was a necessary thing that will let us offload a crapton of work onto the client; I just wish it hadn't been sprung on me so late for delivery so soon. I don't think I've ever spent so much effort shirking responsibility.

- Z

I heart stop-motion animation. This is from PES:

Check out his other stuff - 'Western Spaghetti' is cute and 'KaBoom' is really well done.

- Z

I guess I'm back to posting geeky things I found on the Internet. Today's installment: Super Obama World a Flash game that starts in Alaska and ends, um, somewhere else in Alaska but they say they're going to add more levels.

My nephew is recovering from his skull surgery, so I can stop thinking about how gross that is. He's going to be in a special reshaping helmet for I think 3-4 months? so we were asked to send stickers. I need to find one of the Great Gazoo.

I had a weird dream this morning. I was on the bus and people were talking about the war. From context I gathered that it had just ended, ilke, in the time it takes to walk to the bus stop. So finally I asked and they said that after the election the president canceled the war. He said the will of the people was clear and just called it off, like that. I woke up because it seemed funny to me that the will of the people would matter.

In other nattering, I'm working with another consultant who is good at programming but bad at estimating time requirements. He says he'll be done by a certain date so, the client being impatient, the boss will schedule a demo for the afternoon of that date. When deadline comes, either the boss will get a panicked email first thing in the morning saying it isn't done, or no communication at all. This has caused no small amount of tension between client and boss, and between boss and consultant. It really only gets on my nerves when I get a panicked call from the boss to come in to the office and instant-learn .NET* so he can give a demo that looks like it works. But anyway.

So the boss was kvetching to me, because I'm the good consultant. And it's not that he works slow [he doesn't, really] but that he makes deadlines he can't meet. So I said yeah, if you say it'll be easy and you miss deadline you look like an incompetent. If you start right out with 'I don't think that's possible' you look like a genius if you deliver anything at all. Hints for living, I guess.

- Z

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* I'm such a n00b- is it .NET now? Didn't it used to be .net?

So the auto makers say to the government: now that people aren't spending money they don't have, they're not buying cars they don't need and there's nothing left for us to make. If we go out of business, look at all these people who will be out of jobs. You can't let that happen.

The government will hem and haw long enough to make it look like they don't want to do it, but eventually they will have pity on all these people who will be out of jobs and give billions of dollars to their employers.

The auto manufacturers will say thanks for the cash but we're still a little bit fucked, so ... we're still going to have to lay these people off.

At which point we'll look at all these people who are now out of jobs and say: was this really worth it?

When the government's done hemming and hawing I think it would be better if they said you know what? The auto industry has been opposed to the government meddling in their affairs for years and maybe now is not the time to start. So this multibillion dollar bailout package goes to the employees caught in the middle when you go out of business.

Could somebody tell me why that's crazy?

- Z

Huh.



- Z

I had a busy day Tuesday. Some good, some bad, but man it kicked my ass. At 11am I dashed back from the client's office to the contractor's office to fix some stuff before I had to go back to the client at 3pm. For those who don't work downtown or drive, 11am is probably the worst time to find a spot. Even latecomers are at work by then, but it's too early for anyone to have gone home. As is often the case, the Mohawk ramp was full so I went a couple blocks to the lot by the library. It's a huge expanse of pavement and I made a beeline straight for the last row, which was nearly full.

I found a spot right away but as I pulled closer I found out why it was a spot. Some douche had taken up about 1.1 parking spaces - probably about 18 inches over on the driver's side. Too pressed for time to be angry, I did the math, slid my 0.85-car-width Japanese subcompact right in, and got on my way.

Now at this point I should mention that when I came back to my car it was parked dead-nuts center. That could have left maybe two inches between the cars, max - not even wide enough to get to the door, much less open it. Some people have asked and yes I did briefly consider the possibility of a spite sideswipe but it wasn't borne out by the relative-perceived-worth test [other car was a Mercedes sedan].

So I went back to my car around 3pm dreading trying to squeeze back out, which is often harder than squeezing in. But when I got back to my car I found the situation had resolved itself with a cherry on top. Not only had Mr Congeniality vacated the premises ... not only did he avoid sideswiping me on the way out ... but he tucked this award under my windshield!



Knowing that he'd spent the time finding an envelope and a pen, and stood out in the freezing cold writing this out just for me, totally made my day. Maybe he'd even waited to give it to me in person! As you can tell I hung it up in a place of honor.

But then he stole my ticket! The attendant puts the ticket under your windshield wiper and gives you the stub, and he stole my ticket! It's not like they couldn't charge me based on the stub, and it's not like I didn't already have to pay the full daily fare, but still.

And see I think he got off easy. You can't do that shit in a pay lot because if you take up two spots, that's one spot they can't charge for, and fuck if they'll let that happen. They'll tow your ass. Instead all he had to do was a little freestyle pilates over this snug little piece of equipment:



'cause for $54,075, you don't get bench seats.

- Z