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Voting Experience

November 4th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Today was the day. The one we’ve been looking forward too for 4 years. I was excited and ready to get it done. So up out of bed @ 6:00am this morning, geared up for my bike ride over to the voting place (local elementary school). Jessi would follow shortly afterwards as she decided to run to there.

I get out the door @ 6:15 and a quick 15 minute ride over to the school. When I arrived I noticed two things:

  1. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot
  2. Several signs stating that I must press the “Vote” button or my ballot will not be cast.

I enter the building and see that a line has formed. A very, VERY long line. It runs the length of the elementary school. There were probably ~200 people in line at 6:30 am. I knew that I was going to be waiting for some time.

Fast forward an hour and a half later, I’m finally ready to get into the voting area. Luckily the line for people who have last names starting with P to Z has no one in it and Jessi and I quickly rush to that line. Once at the registration table, I try to make a couple jokes which fall on deaf ears. I notice that directly behind the lady checking my idea and voter card is a row of “watchers” from each party. They were stone cold faces that were measuring me up and down, for what I have no idea.

After getting okayed to vote, I head to the ballot table. As the lady tries to hand me a paper ballot, a young lady beside me inquires about electronic voting. This peaks my interest and angers me a bit.

Why was I not informed that I have that choice up front?

Why is paper balloting even an option anymore?

I understand that there was some bad press about e-voting but we live in a society where I would estimate a large portion of the populace uses electronic banking. If it’s good enough for our money why is everyone afraid of the electronic voting machine? Regardless, once in front of the e-voting device it took me all of 10 seconds to vote, get my sticker and bounce out of the room.

So I’m thinking, who wants to start an e-voting initiative and hardware company with me? This process can and should be streamlined. It’s 2008 and while I don’t have a flying car yet, I can’t believe we have paper ballots. If I get around to it, maybe I’ll post my ideas later on.

How was everyone else’s voting day?

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Tokyo Police Club

November 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

Feel free to ignore this, but if you’ve not heard this album I suggest that you give it a go with the preview above and purchase it. It’s definitely in my Top 10 of 2008 list. I actually hope to produce one of those for general consumption this year.

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Interesting PDC links

October 27th, 2008 · No Comments

Windows Azure: http://www.azure.com

Visual Studio 2010 / .net 4.0: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=922b4655-93d0-4476-bda4-94cf5f8d4814&displaylang=en&tm

Oslo “Hyper Early” CTP: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/oslo/default.aspx

Windows Application Server “Dublin”: http://www.microsoft.com/net/dublin.aspx

→ No CommentsTags: Develop · Web

This weeks listening party.

October 9th, 2008 · No Comments

iTunes Album Art

What has been in my headphones this week:

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5th Anniversary

October 1st, 2008 · No Comments

First post to this blog happened in 2003.

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Stephen Chow confirmed for Green Hornet

September 22nd, 2008 · No Comments

As Kato (and director) and starring opposite Seth Rogan for the 2010 film.

Popular Asian Director and Actor Stephen Chow has been confirmed as both Director and Co-Star for The Green Hornet. Chow will play Kato to Seth Rogan’s Green Hornet!

Columbia Pictures will release The Green Hornet on June 25, 2010, based on a screenplay by Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg.

Many people aren’t excited with Seth Rogan starring as The Green Hornet, but to be honest there were several scenes in Pineapple Express that proved he could be funny and serious in the same scene.

With the addition of Chow as Director and Co-Star the film rises a bit in the minds of fanboys everywhere.

→ No CommentsTags: Comics · Movies

Out of Town

September 14th, 2008 · No Comments

Down in Florida at the moment sucka’s! We’ve already been to the Gulf of Mexico and I’m f’n burnt right good.

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Gama-Go x Joe Ledbetter

September 8th, 2008 · No Comments

I’m a huge fan of Gama-Go stuff, no secret there. Not so much of a Joe Ledbetter fan but I can see the draw of his stuff (especially pirate monkeys).

But this hoodie he has created for Gama-Go looks fantastic and with a release in a little over a week it’ll be just when the weather starts getting cool again and I’ve really run out of hoodies (hint, hint).

via: Vinyl Pulse

→ No CommentsTags: Toys · Web

I hope it’s not fully operational yet.

August 28th, 2008 · No Comments

from current

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Huck Gee Flips Out On the Flippers

August 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Good for Huck Gee. Doesn’t mean I’ll buy his expensive stuff but it’s good =
to see someone start sticking it to the flippers.

via ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected by Sunny Chanel on 8/27/08

Did you read Jeremy’s great piece “Flipping on eBay is Ruining The Scene”. Well if you didn’t go do so now. We’ve all been there. There’s something you want, desire, lust after and just plan need. Someone else has a quicker DSL connection than you, has a faster trigger finger, or just, well, remembered about the sale of that amazing extremely limited edition toy. Next thing you know it’s up on eBay for twice the price by a reseller. Yeah, these flippers are just using toys like a commodity like silver, gold or oil. Buy low and sell high.

But Huck Gee cares about his true fans and has put into effect a new sales policy banning aggressive flippers from his limited edition custom auctions! (read the full sales policy below or here) Let’s hear for the Huck Man!

NEW SALES POLICY:  We realize that a lot of folks have been getting quite frustrated in their attempt to get their hands on Huck’s customs. Partly due to the artwork’s limited nature, but secondly due to too many aggressive resellers jumping into the fray. We do not have anything against other people making secondary market money off of Huck’s creations but there is a problem when aggressive resellers get between Huck and his true fans and die-hard collectors. So as of today, we are instrumenting a new sales policy: Any Ebay buyer/seller found to be aggressively reselling Huck’s limited customs will be banned from any and all future auctions.

We have been tracking some of these folks for a while now, we already know who most of them are and we will be adding them and any future resellers to the ban list as we discover them. We are aware some of these sellers are attempting to disguise their behavior by using more than one Ebay account to buy/sell, so we have been preemptively tracking all the custom ’s as we sell them. Going forward we will be banning both the buyer and the reseller of any custom we find being aggressively resold at the detriment of Huck’s die-hard fans and collectors. Also, any folks reselling customs on Ebay, and found to be hiding/covering the custom figure’s in their auction’s photos/description, will also be assumed to be an aggressive reseller and will also be banned from all future sales.

→ No CommentsTags: Toys

Bloc Party

August 22nd, 2008 · No Comments

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So the new Bloc Party album is out.

What you didn’t know about it?

Don’t feel bad, most people probably didn’t since they gave about 72hrs notice of it’s impending arrival. I totally appreciate the fact that a band is willing to release an album as soon as it’s done.

This is probably my fav track of the whole thing: One Month Off

$10 bucks and it’s has NO DRM or get the CD in October with some extra tracks.

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I actually like Vista

August 19th, 2008 · No Comments

Though to be fair, it took a Service Pack and a faster machine for me to come to this conclusion. Even better (with some caveats) is Windows Server 2008 configured as a workstation.

So will I make my MBP exclusively a Windows machine? No, but I won’t be afraid of booting into Windows anymore.

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No Homo

August 18th, 2008 · No Comments

Jay Smooth breaks it down

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Catch him public access, free tv..

August 17th, 2008 · No Comments

doom 

Madvillain - Boulder Holder from Madvillainy 2 - The Madlib Remix. Get the album here, worth every bit of the 999 cents.

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It’s easy early in the morning

August 15th, 2008 · No Comments

For some reason on my bike ride this morning my iPod decided it was going to be one of those slightly chilled out days. I don’t know why, everything else leading up to today would suggest otherwise. Maybe it was my iPods way of saying chillax and hang out.

Chillax Mix

  1. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
  2. The Bravery - Believe
  3. Ghost In the Water - A Nightmare
  4. The Cansecos - Raised By Wolves (Fantastic Mr. Fox Remix)
  5. The Herbalizer - You’re not all that
  6. Born Ruffians - Baddnkadonkey
  7. Kaskade - I Remember
  8. Lamb - Gabriel (Nellee Hooper Mix)

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