Thursday, November 09, 2006

Musings

Panic:
There is this pesky paper I need to write and it is hanging over my head like a piñata (credit for that silly pun goes to my sister). It should already be in the hands of the discussant who is to comment on it at the anthropology meetings next week in San Jose (the one in California).

As you may have guessed, it is not done. I am supposed to be working on it today. But here I am.

Elections:
So things went well, for once. It is a step in the right direction, but there are so many things that need to be done. Moreover, just because the Democrats are slightly better than Republicans that doen't mean that we are now all saved. There were disappointments. I was following the race in NM-1 closely which the Republican incumbent eked out. The Senate race in TN showed that racist tactics still work. Speaking of race, I received a poll which had questions about race in politics such as would you vote for a multi-racial or African American candidate? How warm or cold do you feel towards illegal immigrants, welfare recipients, Hispanics, etc.? Good god! I digress...


I was curious to see what voting would be like in The Big City. The polling place was fairly similar to other places I have voted - I went around 2 pm and it was pretty quiet. The voting equipment was MUCH different. They still have the ancient lever machines here in NY. It was my first experience with one of these.

Unlike the shaky corregated plastic "stands" I punched my ballots in California or that I filled in bubbles in Massachusetts and Washington, the machines were large behemoths that stood behind a dense curtain that seemingly was designed to double as a fallout shelter. My pulling of the lever for each of my choices was answered by a lound clank from within the bowels of the machine.



Once I was done with my choices, I had to pull the giant lever at the bottom of the machine. It felt like I was switching the tracks at Railroad station as I moved the lever from right to left. With the giant final clank, I was done.

For once, I was on the winning side of things. The outcome was not close in any of the races, so my vote was not all that crucial. At least I was part of the process.

Celebrity City:
Once again our neighborhood (more specifically the block around our building) is the locale for the filming of a television episode. It is still Law and Order, but this time it is the Special Victims Unit spin-off. While the first time was a novelty, this time it is more of an annoyance. They are definitely taking up more street space than the last time and they have marked off the space where I usually park as no-parking for all of today and tonight. Since I got home last night from class at around 10:30, I could not be bothered to hunt for an alternative space. I just parked the car in a nearby garage.

The kicker is that I don't even really like the spinoff and there isn't a chance of me running into Jesse Martin again.

Ok...time to work on the stupid paper or prepare for class tomorrow.

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